New Delhi: Six months after a car explosion killed more than a dozen people near the Red Fort, the NIA on Thursday said it has filed a 7,500-page chargesheet against 10 accused and exposed a “jihadi conspiracy” being hatched by banned Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an Al-Qaeda offshoot.
According to a statement issued by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the accused have been charged under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Explosive Substances Act, Arms Act, and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
The voluminous chargesheet was filed before the designated NIA court at Patiala House against Aamir Rashid Mir, Jasir Bilal Wani, Dr Muzamil Shakeel, Dr Adeel Ahmed Rather, Dr Shaheen Saeed, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay, Soyab, Dr Bilal Naseer Malla and Yasir Ahmad Dar.
The accused launched “Operation Heavenly Hind” aimed at overthrowing the Indian government and imposing Sharia rule, said the statement.
The Srinagar police had busted the blast-linked terror module — dubbed as ‘doctor’ or ‘white-collar’ module because of the involvement of medical professionals — after a meticulous investigation into terror group’s posters found on the city’s outskirts.
While the NIA statement reported 11 fatalities in the high-intensity Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIED) blast that rocked the national capital on November 10 last year, the death toll later rose to 15. Several people were injured in the explosion, which also caused extensive property damage.
Main perpetrator Dr Umer Un Nabi, who was driving the explosive laden car, has been mentioned in column two of the chargesheet and the charges against him have been “proposed to be abated”. He was killed in the explosion which is believed to have been triggered in panic after the Faridabad police announced the arrests of the doctors from Al Falah University besides recovery of 300 kgs of ammonium nitrate.
All the accused have been linked to Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGuH), an offshoot of the Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). The AQIS and all its offshoots were notified as terrorist organisations by the Ministry of Home Affairs in June 2018.
The NIA statement said a major “jihadi conspiracy” was exposed through a detailed scientific and forensic investigation and also that the accused, some of whom radicalised medical professionals, have been inspired by AQIS/AGuH ideology to carry out the deadly attack.
At a clandestine meeting in Srinagar in 2022, the accused reconstituted the AGuH terror outfit as “AGuH Interim” following a failed ‘Hizrat’ (migration) to Afghanistan via Turkiye, it said.
Under the umbrella of the newly constituted outfit, they launched “Operation Heavenly Hind” aimed at overthrowing the democratically established Indian government and imposing Sharia rule, said the statement.
The NIA alleged that as part of this operation, the accused recruited new members, actively propagated the violent ‘jihadi’ ideology of AGuH, stockpiled arms and ammunition, and manufactured explosives on a large scale using commercially available chemicals.
The agency said it found that the accused had also fabricated and tested various types of IEDs.
The explosive used in the blast was Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), which was manufactured by the accused clandestinely after procuring constituent ingredients and conducting experiments to perfect the explosive mixture, the anti-terror agency said.
The chargesheet is based on an extensive investigation spread across Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and the Delhi-NCR region and includes detailed evidence in the form of 588 oral testimonies, more than 395 documents and over 200 seized material exhibits, the statement said.
The NIA, which took over the case from the Delhi Police, had established the identity of the deceased accused as Dr Umer Un Nabi through DNA fingerprinting, it said.
Evidence collected from the scene of the crime, as well as various locations identified by the accused in and around the Al Falah University in Faridabad (Haryana)and in Jammu and Kashmir, was subjected to thorough forensic examination and voice analysis, etc. as part of the investigation.
The NIA probe had further showed that the accused had also been involved in illegal procurement of prohibited arms, including an AK-47 rifle, a Krinkov rifle, and country-made pistols with live ammunition.
They had experimented with rocket and drone-mounted IEDs with the objective of targeting security establishments in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of India, the NIA statement said.
It was also found during the investigation that the accused procured laboratory equipment, including specialised items like MMO Anode (used for preparing TATP), electric circuits, and switches from various offline and online sources as they had plans to expand their operations in other parts of the country, it said.
