NIA court sentences Bangladeshi man to 7 yrs in jail for radicalising Muslim youths

Bengaluru: A Bangladeshi man has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by an NIA court here for radicalising Muslim youths and raising funds for terror activities.

Jahidul Islam alias Kausar has also been fined Rs 57,000 in the cases connected with offences of dacoity, conspiracy and raising funds, as well as procurement of ammunition, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) said in a statement on Monday.

With this, a total of 11 accused have been convicted in these cases, said the statement.

As per NIA investigations, Jahidul, the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Amir of India, along with absconding JMB head Salauddin Salehin, had illegally crossed over into India in 2014 after escaping the custody of Bangladesh police in connection with the 2005 serial blasts in Bangladesh.

During the hiding, he and his associates were involved in the October 2014 Burdwan blast case, the NIA said.

Two persons were killed and another was injured in a bomb explosion at a house in the Khagragarh locality of Burdwan in West Bengal on October 2, 2014.

“After the blast, Jahidul and his aides fled to Bengaluru, where he radicalised and recruited gullible Muslim youths from West Bengal and Assam for furthering the anti-India activities of JMB. The accused and his associates had also committed the blast in Bodhgaya in January 2018,” the agency said.

NIA investigations further revealed that the accused and his associates had also conspired to raise funds through dacoity for furthering the activities of JMB, a banned outfit.

During 2018, they had committed four dacoities in Bengaluru as part of this agenda, and had used the looted money for procuring ammunition and arranging hideouts and training to carry out terrorist activities, the probe agency said.