Arrested ISIS 'recruit' Arif Majeed's NIA custody extended till 22 December

Mumbai: Arrested ISIS ‘recruit’ Arif Majeed’s NIA custody was on Monday extended till 22 December.

Majeed was sent to the probe agency’s custody till today by a special NIA court here a day after he was arrested on 28 November.

The agency today told the court that there was sufficient progress in the investigation and his further interrogation is necessary.

“Some data is recovered (online) while some needs to be recovered.. we need the custody to confront Majeed with the data provided by the service providers”, NIA told Special Judge YD Shinde.

The agency also said that the data that has been recovered shows his involvement alongwith other three persons who have been shown as wanted in the case.

Though Majeed’s lawyer Wahab Khan, did not oppose the NIA custody, he moved an application saying that the accused does not want to give any confession.

Wahab also moved another application seeking action against NIA officials for leaking information to the media.

Later, the NIA moved an application saying that they wanted to submit some compact disks which had contents downloaded from his e-mail. However it did not press for the application.

Meanwhile Judge Shinde today reprimanded the agency for committing spelling errors in their applications.

“There are so many mistakes you have written ‘gamail’ instead of gmail, ‘contains’ instead of ‘contents’, please hire a teacher”, the court said.

In the court, Majeed told his name and replied in negative when asked whether he had any complainants against the NIA.

The 23-year-old youth from neighbouring Kalyan landed in Mumbai on November 28 following which he was immediately detained by the security agencies, and later arrested.

A case under sections of Unlawful Assembly Prevention Act (UAPA) and section 125 of IPC which deals with waging war against any Asiatic country which has friendly ties with India, was registered against ISIS, Majeed and other three other youngsters.

According to police, four engineering students flew to Baghdad on 23 May as part of a group of 22 pilgrims to visit religious shrines in Iraq.

The next day Arif had called his family from Baghdad and apologised for having left without informing them. Upon returning to India, other pilgrims had told police that Arif, Fahad, Aman and Shaheen had hired a taxi to Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad which had emerged as the epicentre of Iraq’s deadly insurgency.

On 26 August, Shaheen Tanki called up Arif’s family and told them that their son had become a ‘martyr’ claiming that the latter died fighting for ISIS in Syria.

Accordingly the next day, Arif’s family performed ‘Janaza-e-gayabana’ (prayers for the departed soul in absence of the body) in Kalyan.

Recently, Arif’s father Ejaz Majeed had reportedly met the NIA and told them his son had fled from the
ISIS-controlled areas to Turkey after fighting for the militant group for nearly three months and wanted to return to India.

PTI