A National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court on Wednesday sentenced Manseed Muhmood, alias Omar Al Hindi, of Thalassery, the prime accused in the Kanakamala Islamic State (IS) module case, to 14-year rigorous imprisonment (RI) and a fine of ₹15,000.
The second accused Swalih Mohammed of Chelad, third accused Rashid Ali of Coimbatore, fourth accused Ramshad of Kuttiyadi, fifth accused Safvan and eighth accused Moinuddin were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment of 10, seven, three, eight and three years respectively. The second and third accused were slapped a fine of ₹15, 000 each, the fourth accused ₹25,000, fifth accused ₹10,000 and eighth accused ₹50,000. The eighth accused was slapped with the highest fine as he was found to have transferred around ₹18,000 to the second accused for funding an act of terror. The court had earlier found all of them guilty and acquitted sixth accused Jasim N.K. granting him the benefit of doubt. The seventh accused had died.
The fourth accused will walk free as the three years he spent as an under trial prisoner will be set off against the sentence term. Though the eighth accused was also sentenced to three years, he will have to spent another couple of months since his arrest was recorded later. All of them were found guilty under Indian Penal Code Section 120B (criminal conspiracy). However, the convicts were separately found guilty under Sections 17, 18, 18B, 38, 29, and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), depending on the gravity of the offences they were charged with. The accused are likely to challenge the verdict in the High Court.
The NIA’s case was that the accused had allegedly declared allegiance to the terror outfit IS and hammered out plans to launch terror strikes across Kerala and neighbouring States.
