Picture for representational purpose
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday submitted its chargesheet in connection with the arrest of two Rajkot-based brothers arrested for allegedly planning an Islamic State-inspired “lone wolf attack” in the state. The chargesheet, filed before a special court, described the brothers — Vaseem (30) and Naeem Ramodiya (27) — as “highly radical and sympathisers of the proscribed organisation ISIS.”
The chargesheet stated that Vaseem entered into a conspiracy with his online handler/s to make IEDs to strike terror. “Vaseem bought firecrackers (sutli bomb), battery and connector and removed gunpowder from fire crackers in order to make a bomb.Naeem was also a part of the conspiracy to carry out the lone wolf attack and destroy property belonging to Kafirs (non-believers),” the chargesheet stated.
The two brothers have been chargesheeted for conspiracy under sections 13, 18, 20, 38 and 39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and under Explosive Substances Act. According to sources in the NIA, one of the prosecution’s witnesses is Vaseem’s wife, Shehjeen, who has admitted her husband’s alleged plan to carry out “lone wolf attack”. Some of the audio calls recovered from Vaseem’s phone during the investigation have also suggested that Vaseem’s wife knew about his plan to attack Chotila Temple in Surendranagar district, sources said.
Ramodiya brothers, sons of Arif Ramodiya, a retired stenographer of Saurasthra University, were first arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on February 26 from Rajkot and Bhavnagar. The ATS claimed that it had recovered PDF files from their computers and mobile phones which had details of making bombs using quartz alarm clocks, materials extracted from firecrackers, decoration lamps, elbow pipe among others. The NIA took over the probe in May. In its chargesheet, the NIA concluded that “they (brothers) advocated and propagated ISIS cause by following its news and videos, and shared images, videos and literature in its support on social media.” The NIA told the court that FSL examination of the brothers’ cellphones and laptops found that they were in contact with several other sympathisers of ISIS.
