Alleged ISIS operative Shahjahan Velluva Kandy (32), who was arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell earlier this month, is now being prosecuted under the stringent Unlawfaul Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), highly placed sources said.
Initially, Delhi Police had booked Shahjahan under sections of cheating, forgery and impersonation of the Indian Penal Code read (IPC) read with relevant section of the Passport Act.
“A separate FIR under section 18 of the UAPA Act has been registered against alleged ISIS operative Shahjahan Velluva Kandy and he has been taken into police custody for further investigation into his links with the terror group ISIS,” sources said.
With the addition of the UAPA Act, the case has become stronger and it will be difficult for the accused to get bail. Section 18 of the UAPA Act (punishment for conspiracy) says that whoever conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of, a terrorist act or any act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.
A resident of Kannur in Kerala, 32-year-old Shahjahan, had tried going to Syria twice to join the ISIS but was deported by the Turkey Police for travelling on fake passports.
After his arrest, Shahjahan also told police about his links with some of the ISIS terrorists who were arrested in Kerala in October last year.
Also, police came to know that Shahjahan was in touch with several ISIS sympathisers in India and Syria through the Telegram Application as hundreds of Telegram IDs of ISIS sympathisers were found in his mobile.
Voluminous data recovered from the mobile, memory and SIM cards of the accused are being analysed. The Anti-Terror Unit has also arrested the agent who had made the fake passports for the accused in Kerala. The sleuths are tracking the movements of the accused with other ISIS operatives, the sources added.