Additional NIA team joins investigation of IS module

Sudarshan Moodbidri (center) BJP district president asked the NIA to go deep into the IS module issue and arrest all those who are giving financial and logistical support to the accused persons.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday continued questioning the family members of the former MLA and poet late B.M. Idinabba in Ullal here relating to the investigation of the Islamic State (IS) module unearthed about a year ago.

An additional team of nine members from the NIA, which included an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police, joined the investigation on Thursday. The Mangaluru Police provided necessary logistical support to the NIA team.

The house in Mastikatte in Ullal in which Mr. Idinabba’s son B.M. Basha, a realtor, is staying, was among the five places that the NIA teams searched in Karnataka and Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday. This search was in continuation of investigation of the IS module that was unearthed a year ago when intelligence agencies came across an Instagram channel that was involved in Islamic State-related propaganda.

The house of B.M. Idinabba, who passed away in 2009, at Mastikatte in Ullal near Mangaluru. The former MLA’s son now lives in the house with his family.

 

Following the search on Wednesday, the NIA arrested Ammar Abdul Rahman from Ullal, Mangaluru, Shankar Venkatesh Perumal alias Ali Muaviya from Bengaluru, Obaid Hamid from Srinagar and Muzammil Hassan Bhat from Bandipora in Kashmir.

The agency has accused these four persons of raising funds, radicalising and motivating others to join the Islamic State. The NIA detained in Mangaluru four accused persons and a woman who were to fly to Afghanistan.

The search in Mangaluru on Wednesday was carried out by a team led by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police and it included a Deputy Superintendent of Police, a Police Inspector, a Sub-Inspector and an Assistant Sub-Inspector.

Go deep, says BJP

Strongly condemning the action of the accused persons in radicalising youth from Dakshina Kannada and Kerala and making them join the IS, Dakshina Kannada district BJP president Sudarshan Moodbidri on Thursday asked the NIA to go deep into the matter and arrest all those who are giving financial and logistical support to the accused persons. “Effective action should be taken to nip in the bud the efforts to spread IS in the region,” he said.

Mr. Sudarshan said that the party had demanded that the Union government open an unit of the NIA in Mangaluru. It will reiterate the demand through MP and State BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel. In a statement, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s Zilla Prachara Pramukh Pradeep Saripalla said that an unit of the NIA was necessary in the city to effectively curb activities of IS.