NIA chargesheets Bengaluru doctor Abdur Rahman for sedition

BENGALURU: The National Investigation Agency has chargesheeted Bengaluru ophthalmologist Dr Abdur Rahman for sedition, criminal conspiracy and waging war against the government. The chargesheet has been filed under various sections of the IPC and UAPA. In the chargesheet submitted before the special court in New Delhi, the NIA has stated that Rahman was “furthering the ideology and activities of proscribed terrorist organisation ISIS/Islamic State of Syria and Khorasan Province (ISKP) in connivance with co-accused Jahanzaib Sami Wani and others for committing subversive/anti-national activities.”

The NIA arrested Rahman (28), the son of a reputed ophthalmologist in Bengaluru, on August 17. On September 2, it filed a chargesheet against five accused -- Jahanzaib Sami and Hina Bashir Beigh from Srinagar, Abdullah Basith from Hyderabad, Sadiya Anwar Shaikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri from Pune -- under various sections of IPC for criminal conspiracy, sedition, promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion and disappearance of evidence, and also under UAPA Sections. “Rahman was radicalised, while listening to the online lectures of hardline Islamic preachers including Anwar Awlaki,” the NIA has stated.

He had travelled to Syria in December 2013, and participated in terrorist activities of ISIS.“On his return to India, he utilised his knowledge of ophthalmic lasers and medical science and tried to develop applications for medical and military requirements of the banned terrorist organisation. He was in regular touch with ISIS terrorists located abroad as well as in India, including  Sami, on a secure messaging platform  Threema,” the NIA has stated.