Terror graffiti case: Supplementary chargesheet filed
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) filed a supplementary chargesheet in the Mangaluru terror graffiti case of 2020 on Thursday. It added Arafath Ali, hailing from Shivamogga, who had fled the country in 2020 fearing arrest in the Islamic State inspired Al Hind module case and was arrested in September 2023 at the Delhi International Airport when he returned from Kenya, as an accused in the case.
Mohammed Shariq, who had also gone absconding in 2022 to only later turn up with the explosive rigged cooker bomb that accidentally went off in his hands on the outskirts of Mangaluru on November 19, 2022, and Maaz Muneer Ahmed, both residents of Teerthahalli, Shivamogga, were accused of writing proterror graffiti supporting the proscribed terrorist outfits, Islamic State (IS), LashkareTaiba (LeT) and the Taliban. “In its second Supplementary Chargesheet filed in the case today, NIA has charged Arafath Ali, and filed additional charges against Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed,” the NIA said in a statement.
the NIA chargesheet has alleged that Arafath Ali, is associated with Abdul Matheen Taha and Mussavir Hussain Shazeb, accused in the Al Hind module case, which pertains to a module which was allegedly trying to launch an insurgency from the forests of South India to establish an Islamic State province.
Larger conspiracy
“It was on instructions from Abdul Matheen and Mussavir Hussain that Arafath had indoctrinated Mohamed Shariq, Maaz Muneer Ahmed and others to write graffiti in support of terror and terror outfits at two places in Mangaluru. It was further found that Arafath, along with his associates and online handler, was part of a larger conspiracy to further the terror activities of IS/ISIS. Arafat had paid the graffiti writers with funds received from his online handler in the form of cryptocurrencies,” NIA has now alleged.
The NIA had earlier filed one main and one supplementary chargesheet against nine accused, including Mohammed Shariq and Maaz Muneer Ahmed.