The special NIA court hearing the Kanakamala Islamic State (IS) module case on Monday found six of the accused guilty of terrorism and acquitted one of the accused. However, the court said that the prosecution failed to prove that those arrested in the case had any links to terror outfit Islamic State.
The quantum of punishment for the six accused will be pronounced by the court on Wednesday.
The NIA had accused seven men of declaring allegiance to the IS and had alleged that they had plans to launch terror attacks across Kerala and neighbouring states. The NIA investigation had accused the six of planning an attack on foreigners belonging to the Jewish community, prominent political leaders, high court judges, senior policemen, rationalists and Muslims belonging to the Ahmadiyya sect.
The NIA arrested the six members during a raid at Kanakamala in Kannur district in October 2016 where the accused were holding a meeting. The NIA had told the court that the accused were members of a group called Ansar-ul-Khilafah Kerala with links to IS.
The six persons convicted the case are Manseed Muhmood, alias Omar Al Hindi of Thalassery, Swalih Mohammed of Chelad, Rashid Ali of Coimbatore, Ramshad of Kuttiyadi, and Safvan and Moinuddin. The court has acquitted Jasim N K, granting him the benefit of the doubt.
The NIA court found the six accused guilty of being part of a terrorist gang but stated that the prosecution had failed to prove their links to the Islamic State terror outfit. The prosecution could not provide evidence to prove charges under IPC sections 121 and 122 that the accused had waged war against the country and collected arms and ammunition for the purpose.
The NIA named Shajeer Mangalassery Abdulla from Kozhikode as the leader of the module and that he has reportedly been gunned down in Afghanistan. The group communicated using the Telegram app, the NIA said. Another accused in the case, Sidhik-Hul-Aslam from Vembayam is still at large. The NIA claimed that one of the accused in the case Moideen was trained by IS at Mosul in Iraq and was even deployed at the war front, reported ToI.