Nabbed ISIS linked operatives booked under section 121 of IPC punishable by death sentence, ATS will send evidences to FSL

Ahmedabad: The Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Gujarat police will send the evidences and materials recovered from the two alleged ISIS operative brothers nabbed during late-night raids from Bhavnagar and Rajkot yesterday, to forensic science laboratory (FSL) for various tests and corroboration.

The duo have been booked under section 121 of the IPC ( Waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India.) which has provision of capital punishment and life imprisonment, and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and other relevant sections of various acts.

Addressing a press conference here after arrival of ATS teams with Vaseem and Naeem, the two nabbed brothers, ATS DySP B H Chavada said that the duo had degrees like BCA and MCA and they were cyber experts.

‘The material recovered from them including the clips of their conversation with their handler, gunpowder, laptop, mobile phones and various downloaded materials including IED (bomb) making procedure, ISIS related info and literature would be sent to the FSL now for further tests and corroboration. Primary investigation revealed that they had come in contact with ISIS operatives online through various social medial like the Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, Imo, Whatsapp etc around 2-3 years ago and become influenced by their ideology and were in touch with some handler, who is yet to be identified. The ATS was keeping a watch on them for the past around 3 months and when their activities become more serious It was decided to nab them and were nabbed by two teams of the ATS which conducted almost simultaneous raids in Rajkot and Bhavnagar,’ he said.

They had tried some ‘lone wolf’ (doing it alone) terror attacks including hacking someone to death in Chotila and torching some vehicles but had not succeeded

Chavada however denied the reports in a section of media regarding wife of Vaseem being the master-mind operative. ‘So far her role has not been established in it,’ the ATA DySP said adding that their connection with NIA charge-sheeted ISIS operative Mufti Abu Kasim is also being investigated but not clear as yet.

He said that the FSL tests would also reveal whether their handler was talking to them from India or abroad. It will also help the agency to zero in on the handler.

Chavada said that eldest of the two brothers Vaseem was nabbed from his flat in Raiya road area of Rajkot and was more active. He was in to some petty job and his brother Naeem nabbed from Prabhutalav area of Bhavnagar was in to scrap business.

The father of the duo Arif Ramodia, a retired employee of Saurashtra university is a popular local umpire associated with SCA and have done umpiring in numerous district level matches.

DeshGujarat