Indian Railways under scanner: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted raids at 44 locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka on December 9th, which were connected to the terrorist group ISIS. After the raids, the investigative agency took 15 ISIS fighters into custody. The agency discovered that one of the terrorists worked for Northern Railways as a government employee after looking into the module more.
He faked medical invoices to pay for the terror module, according to an article published in The Indian Express. After the operations on December 9th, the NIA received information about other terrorists, who were later identified as Shahnawaz Alam, Mohammad Arshad Warsi, and Muhammad Rizwan Ashraf.
In October of this year, the Delhi Police Special Cell took all three of them into custody. On the Home Ministry’s orders, the NIA assumed control of the situation in November.
A common pattern was found during the investigation into the three ISIS terrorists and their associates. The NIA discovered that money was routinely deposited into their accounts from a shared source.
After more research and interrogation, it was discovered that the terrorist who had been supplying them with money was a resident of Noida and employed as a clerk in the financial department of Northern Railways.
The Indian Express was informed by an unidentified intelligence source that the employee of the Railways had become radicalised by the terrorists the police had detained. The clerk is evading capture, and numerous authorities are attempting to find him.
It appears that he submitted multiple bogus medical bills and included the account numbers of ISIS militants for payment, although the precise method by which he was able to embezzle the funds from Railways would become evident following his arrest.
The Northern Railways were notified of this, the source told The Indian Express. They have lodged a complaint at Parliament Street Police Station in Delhi, making accusations of internal fraud and requesting the filing of a formal report against the clerk. However, they made no mention of his connection to the purported ISIS militants.
A First Information Report was filed against the clerk at Parliament Street Police Station under the applicable laws, according to a report by Live Hindustan.
Breaking an ISIS module in Maharashtra
In the Thane area of Maharashtra, on December 9th, the NIA disrupted an ISIS module, leading to the arrest of fifteen terrorists. The mastermind of the module was determined to be Saquib Nachan by the investigative agency. It was stated that the module planned to conduct acts of terrorism throughout India.
The investigations have shown that the accused, who are all members of the ISIS Maharashtra module, were operating out of Padgha-Borivali, where they planned their plot to incite terror and commit violent crimes throughout India, according to a statement released by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). By following the path of violent jihad, Khilafat, ISIS, and other groups, the accused sought to undermine national peace and harmony among communities and wage war against the Indian government.
Notably, the security authorities are not unfamiliar with the name Nachan. He has been involved in more than a dozen instances involving terrorism. The court found him guilty of two of the charges. The Supreme Court found him guilty in 1997 of planning terror attacks in the early 1990s while collaborating with Khalistani terror groups. He was also charged with involvement in the Mumbai explosions of 2002–2003. In 2016, a Mumbai court found him guilty and sentenced him to ten years in jail. After serving his time, he was freed in 2017. In connection with the ISIS module investigation, the NIA detained his son Shamil Nachan, who is also engaged in terrorist operations.