MUMBAI: Jamiat Ulama E Maharashtra’s legal cell, which was providing legal aid to Rizwan Ahmed (24) and Mohsin Sayyed (33) who were accused of instigating youth from Malwani in Malad to join the terror group ISIS in 2015, said that they do not support their action of wanting to plead guilty, and hence are withdrawing legal aid with immediate effect.
Sayyed’s lawyer Wahab Khan said that on November 26, he made his decision known to him. Khan said that despite assurances that the case was progressing favourably, Sayyed did not relent.
It is the prosecution’s case that in 2015, the family members of wanted accused Ayaz Mohammed, Sayyed and the two renegade youths, who are now witnesses in the case, filed a missing person’s complaint with the Malwani police station.
It was claimed that the four used to take keen interest in ISIS-related news and also held discussions on the outlawed group’s activities. It was further submitted that two of the youths returned home.
On December 30, 2015, the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) registered an FIR against Mohammed and other unknown persons. Following investigations it was alleged that in 2015, Mohammed entered into a criminal conspiracy with Ahmed, Sayyed and his handler—absconding accused Yusuf Al Hindi—to propagate ISIS’s jihadi activities.
Ahmed, a Uttar Pradesh-based student, was arrested in January 2016. He was accused of being the ‘nayab ameer’ (rank of a senior leader) of Jundul Khilafa Al-Hind (JKH) which allegedly had allegiance to the ISIS in India.
It was alleged that on the instructions of his handler, Ahmed travelled to Chennai and Bengaluru with the intention of identifying and spotting vulnerable Muslim youths who could be targeted to join ISIS for ‘jihad’. He is also accused of arriving in Mumbai for the same purpose in December 2015 with Sayyed’s help.
The NIA took over the investigations in March 2016. The chargesheet was subsequently submitted.
Ahmed, in his bail plea before the HC, had said that he was merely a child in 2013, when Mohammed’s alleged radicalisation had begun. He said that Mohammed had left on his own accord and there was no evidence to show that they knew each other. His bail plea had said that allegations that he was the ‘nayab ameer’ of JKH was a “figment of imagination”.
“It is highly improbable that the young boy of less than 20 years makes the chances of him being in a high position of an international terrorist organisation,” Ahmed’s bail plea had said.
