An investigation by the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) into the utilization of cell phones by a Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)-linked terror convict housed within the Bengaluru Central Jail has revealed {that a} jail psychiatrist was procuring cell phones from a neighborhood cell retailer for costs starting from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 and promoting it to prisoners for Rs 25,000.
The NIA, which is investigating a jail radicalisation case, the place the LeT-linked convict Thadiyantavide Naseer, 47, is accused of radicalising youths within the jail, arrested jail psychiatrist Dr S Nagaraj on July 8 for allegedly supplying cell phones to Naseer and different prisoners on the Bengaluru Central jail. Naseer has been convicted in a terrorism case in Kerala and is at the moment below trial for the 2008 Bengaluru serial blasts case and the jail radicalisation case.
The NIA has now sought to query some prisoners within the Bengaluru central jail who have been alleged recipients of cell phones offered by the jail psychiatrist by means of jail intermediaries. A particular courtroom for terrorism instances has allowed the NIA to query a homicide convict from Karnataka who’s housed within the Bengaluru Central Jail as a part of additional investigations.
The NIA probe has discovered that the jail psychiatrist lived a lavish life with frequent visits to vacation resorts across the nation and that one among his two mistresses allegedly helped him in procuring and supplying telephones to prisoners within the Bengaluru Central Jail.
The NIA has discovered throughout its investigations that Dr Nagaraj bought cell phones from a cell retailer close to his home and “illegally took/smuggled them into the jail and additional handed over the stated cell phones to the convicted prisoners”.
The jail psychiatrist took Rs 25,000 per cell from the prisoners whereas he bought the cell phones at costs starting from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000, the NIA stated in courtroom filings. The NIA is investigating the supply of funds for convicted prisoners like T Naseer, who’re lodged within the excessive safety barrack of the jail, to purchase cell telephones. Naseer is alleged to have been offered telephones at the next price by the psychiatrist than different prisoners.
“These cell phones are bought below the pseudo identify of Raghu. He has additionally disclosed that the cell phone utilized by accused No.1 T Naseer was additionally bought by him from Priya cell within the pseudo identify of Raghu,” the NIA courtroom has famous. The psychiatrist allegedly obtained money from the convicted prisoners for smuggling telephones into the jail.
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The particular courtroom has directed jail authorities to permit NIA officers to conduct additional investigations within the jail on the cellphone provides and utilization by T Naseer and others.
Jail radicalisation case
The LeT-linked Naseer, who has been within the Bengaluru jail since 2009, was accused in 2023 of being a key participant in a jail radicalisation initiative the place he allegedly radicalised eight undertrial youths lodged within the jail from 2017 to 2023 to take up jihad when they’re launched from jail. Seven youths are arrested and one remains to be lacking.
Seven of the eight prisoners arrested within the case, together with Naseer, moved an utility within the particular courtroom on July 7 to plead responsible within the jail radicalisation, terror conspiracy case, which the NIA is at the moment investigating.
On July 8, the NIA arrested three extra individuals within the case: Dr Nagaraj, a Central Armed Reserve policeman; Chan Bhasha; and Anees Fathima, the mom of Junaid Ahmed, a lacking accused within the radicalisation case, for allegedly aiding the jail actions of Naseer.
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Other than Naseer, the opposite arrested accused within the jail case are Syed Suhail, 24; Mohammed Umar, 30; Zahid Tabrez, 27; Syed Mudassir Pasha, 29; Mohammed Faisal, 29; Salman Khan, 29; and Vikram Kumar alias Chota Usman, 25.
Among the many three arrested on July 8, Anees Fathima is accused of facilitating monetary transactions between numerous accused individuals within the conspiracy case, the policeman Pasha is accused of offering police escort particulars of T Naseer to different accused individuals on cost of bribes, and the psychiatrist Dr Nagaraj is accused of smuggling telephones into the jail.
The investigation of the jail terror conspiracy case was taken over by the NIA in October 2023 after the Bengaluru police carried out the early investigations. The probe businesses have alleged that the accused procured arms, ammunition and digital gadgets for terrorist actions after they have been radicalised in jail by Naseer.
The preliminary Bengaluru police probe indicated that Naseer, who had been in jail for over 13 years, radicalised just a few members of a gaggle of 20 youths who have been lodged within the Bengaluru central jail between 2017 and 2019 for the homicide of a businessman in Bengaluru in October 2017.
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The police alleged that Naseer impressed Junaid Ahmed, 29, one of many 20 youths who have been arrested in 2017, within the case of the homicide of the businessman, to take up the reason for his faith and facilitated the creation of a module. Junaid Ahmed left the nation for Dubai round 2021 and has not been traced but.
Naseer allegedly radicalised Junaid’s dad and mom, Anees Fathima and Abdul Basheer, once they have been lodged within the Bengaluru jail over a 2017 sandalwood theft case.
“Naseer had orchestrated the radicalisation and subsequent legal actions, together with plans to facilitate his personal escape enroute to the courtroom from the jail and a conspiracy to additional the operations of the proscribed terrorist organisation LeT,” the NIA stated final yr.
Naseer who was arrested in 2009 by the Bengaluru police for the 2008 serial blasts within the metropolis which killed one particular person is amongst 18 members of the banned College students’ Islamic Motion of India (SIMI) convicted for seven years in 2018 by an NIA courtroom in Kerala for being a part of a terror coaching camp at Vagamon in Kerala in 2007.