The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a chargesheet against a marketing manager of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) for his alleged links to the militant outfit - the Islamic State (IS).
The accused Mohammad Sirajuddin (33) was arrested from Jaipur in December last year by the Rajasthan Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and the case was later transferred to the NIA in February this year.
Sirajuddin’s wife Yasmeen Tarannum told The Hindu that her husband was only researching about the IS on the Internet and he had been falsely accused by the Rajasthan ATS for terror links.
Ms. Tarannum also refuted NIA’s allegation that Sirajuddin wanted to travel to Syria along with his newborn son to make him a mujahid, as reported earlier by The Hindu.
“Whenever a subject interested him, he went deeper into it. So was the case with IS. He was only trying to research about it on the Internet. He had no intention to harm anybody or fight for them. He was only curious to find about the enigma around IS. He was arrested because he searched for IS on the web,” said Ms. Tarannum, a computer application scientist.
She also added that when Rajasthan ATS could not get any evidence against Sirajuddin, they asked him to confess that he had been “radicalised.”
“Rajasthan ATS had no evidence against him. They did not know what to book my husband for? In the name of counselling, they called some man who asked my husband to give up his religion and stop reading namaaz. They even asked him to not believe in Koran, to drink alcohol and what not. In the name of modernisation they asked him to visit brothel and watch pornography. This is appalling,” she said.
The Rajasthan ATS had booked him for promoting the ideology of IS, inciting others to become its and indulging in terrorist and antinational activities through various social media platforms and web based application services like Facebook, Whatsapp and Telegram.
“Investigation conducted has brought on record evidences of his incriminating chats, posts, videos, images and comments on Facebook, Whatsapp, Telegram and Twitter shared and circulated in groups and channels on various social networking sites. Investigation has also established his association with IS operatives from various countries who were actively online propagating, promoting and inciting peoples to join IS,” said an NIA statement.
Officials said that it was a Facebook message posted by a Kenyan woman identified as Ameena that made a deep impression on Sirajuddin.
NIA had earlier said that Sirajuddin wanted to marry Ameena and travel with her to Syria.
"Who is this Ameena? My husband never told me about her. I refuse to believe that he chatted with someone for such long hours. NIA officials have denied that they made any such claims. Why should we leave our country?" Ms. Tarannum said.
