The accused were identified as Parbhani residents Nasirbin Abubakar Chaus (34), Mohammad Shahed Khan (24), Iqbal Ahmed (28), and Mohammad Raeesuddin Siddiqui (37).
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Friday filed a charge-sheet in the case wherein a module of Islamic State (IS) sympathisers was busted in July this year. The group was allegedly planning a terrorist attack during Ramazan, police claimed. They also named a Syria-based handler, Farooq, as a wanted accused in the charge-sheet.
The accused were identified as Parbhani residents Nasirbin Abubakar Chaus (34), Mohammad Shahed Khan (24), Iqbal Ahmed (28), and Mohammad Raeesuddin Siddiqui (37).
According to ATS additional director general of police, Atulchandra Kulkarni, the 3,632-page charge-sheet was filed in the Nanded court on Friday. The accused have been booked on charges of conspiracy and forgery under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities and Prevention Act and the Explosive Substances Act.
In July, the ATS received a tip-off that a Parbhani-based man, later identified as Chaus, was in touch with banned terrorist outfit IS through internet. Reportedly, Chaus was planning a terror attack and was also planning to leave for Iraq to join IS, police said.
"We learned that the said person had been viewing IS videos for the last few months and had recently renewed his passport. Further inquiry revealed that the group had also procured material to prepare explosives and was to carry out an attack during Ramazan. Also, the said person had passed on the information about having procured explosives while chatting with Farooq on various messenger platforms, such as Twitter, Telegram, Skype and Chatsecure," said ATS deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni.
A case was then registered against Chaus and he was placed under arrest. He then spilled the beans on other members, who were subsequently arrested. Chaus was found to be in touch with his Syria-based handler, known as Farooq, through as many as 18 bogus accounts on social media.
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