The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the probe in a case earlier registered against five persons by the Mayiladuthurai police in Tamil Nadu, alleging that they planned to float anti-national organisations and had associated themselves with the terror outfit, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The accused have been identified as Sathik Batcha, Mohamed Ashiq, Jagabar Ali and Rahmath from Tamil Nadu and Mohamed Irfhan from Karaikal in Puducherry.
The local police had registered the case in February and arrested Sathik Batcha and others for their alleged involvement in various offences under the Indian Penal Code and the Arms Act. They later invoked provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in the case.
The Union government referred it to the NIA based on information that “Sathik Batcha, also known as ‘Icama Saddiq’, has been actively indulging in various anti-national activities and is a member of ‘Manitha Neethi Pasaral’ (MNP), now re-designated as Popular Front of India (PFI) and also a covert sympathiser of ISIS ideology”.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the five persons associated themselves with the Islamic State with the intention of furthering its activities in India. “The accused intended to the [se]cession of a part of the territory of India and intended to disrupt the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India by forming an (sic) anti-national organisation[s] namely ‘Khilafah Party of India’, ‘Khilafa Front of India’ and ‘Intellectual Students of India’ (ISI) and ‘Student Party of India’ etc...,”,” it said.
