A Special NIA Court in Kochi on Saturday sentenced Yasmeen Mohammed Zahid, a 30-year-old woman of Bihar origin, to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment in a case pertaining to recruitment of Kerala youths into Islamic State (ISIS). It also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on Yasmeen, second accused in the case.
Special Judge S Santhosh Kumar pronounced the punishment after finding her guilty under Sections 120 (B) and 125 of the IPC (respectively criminal conspiracy and waging war with an Asiatic power in alliance with Indian Government). She was also convicted under Sections 38, 39 and 40 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
The trial in the case had concluded at the special court on Tuesday. “I am innocent. I am a law-abiding Indian citizen,” Yasmeen, the only accused to be arrested and to be put to trial in the case so far, said when she was brought to the Kochi court for hearing the verdict on Saturday. This was the first of the six ISIS recruitment cases the NIA had probed in Kerala.
The National Investigation Agency had last year filed the chargesheet against Yasmeen, second accused, and first accused Abdul Rashid Abdulla of Thrikkarippur, Kasaragod, who had allegedly motivated a number of youths from Kasaragod to leave India with their families for joining the ISIS in Afghanistan.
The case related to the exit from India of 14 persons, including Rashid, from Kasaragod into the ISIS camps in Afghanistan between May and July, 2016. There were a total of 15 accused in the case, probed initially by Kerala Police and re-registered by the NIA in August, 2016, but only two were chargesheeted as 13 of them were said to be in Afghanistan and one in Syria.
According to the Prosecution, the conspiracy was to take 15 persons, Yasmeen and Rashid included, out of the country to enroll with the ISIS in Afghanistan but only 14 could go. “It is learnt that three of them were killed there.” said the NIA’s prosecutor. The court had examined 52 Prosecution witnesses and three defence witnesses, he informed.
A total of 21 persons from Kasaragod and Palakkad had gone missing from the country mysteriously in May-July, 2016 and were feared to have joined the ISIS in its camps in Afghanistan. Yasmeen allegedly could not leave the country at that time as she had not been able to get the required paper works done in time.
The woman operative, said to be the second wife of chief conspirator Abdul Rashid, was arrested from Delhi airport while trying to go to Kabul with her minor son in order to join the co-conspirator. The police had allegedly seized Rs 70,000 and US$ 620 from her at the time of the arrest and had confiscated her mobile phone and laptop computer.
According to the NIA, Rashid used to conduct classes in support of the terror outfit and its ideology of violent Jihad. He had motivated the 14 other accused to join the terror group, it said. The probe had revealed that the conspiracy had been going on since July, 2015, more than a year before they left for the ISIS camps. The judge said the evidences showed that Rashid and Yasmeen had an inclination to join the terror group and that the first accused had along with his companions physically joined the ISIS by reaching Afghanistan. He added that the audio messages Rashid had sent from Afghanistan to his relatives openly propagated ISIS ideology. Yasmeen, who was brought up in Saudi Arabia where her parents were settled, had come to Kerala with her husband five years ago after she got a teacher’s job at Peace International School, whose managing director MM Akbar, an Islamic preacher, was arrested last month for teaching textbooks with contents that allegedly incited religious enmity in the school. It was here that she had met Rashid who was a trainer there. It is said that her husband fell out with her later and left the country after which Rashid and Yasmeen became close. According to the police, Yasmeen had been in constant contact with Rashid after he left the country and that a hefty amount had been deposited in her account just before her arrest.