Delhi High Court dismisses bail pleas of suspected ISIS operatives

The bail pleas of 15 suspected ISIS operatives was dismissed by Delhi High Court. These operatives were arrested from different parts of the country by the NIA for allegedly financing and recruiting people to join the dreaded terror group.

A bench of Justices Gita Mittal and Anu Malhotra rejected the appeals filed by all the accused against the trial court's order saying they were "devoid of any legal merit".

They had approached the high court challenging the trial court's order saying it had dismissed their applications for bail despite the fact that neither the charge sheet was filed against them, nor the period of their detention under judicial custody was extended.

Advocate M S Khan, appearing for these accused, had said in the appeal that his clients were entitled to be released on statutory bail by trial court under section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure as no charge sheet had been filed against them till then.

However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had later filed a chargesheet in the case.

The appeals in the high court were filed by arrested accused -- Abu Anas, Mohammed Afzal, Najmul Huda, Suhail Ahmed, Mohd Hussain, Mohammed Aleem, Asif Ali, Syed Mujahid, Imran, Mudabbir Mushtaq Shaikh, Mohd Nafees Khan, Mohd Shareef Moinuddin Khan and Mohammad Obaidulla Khan.

They were arrested in January 2016 by NIA which had alleged that they were involved in a larger conspiracy of ISIS, in India and abroad, including recruitment of resident and non-resident Indians.

Besides them, two other accused -- Adnan Hassan and Mohd Farhan Shaikh -- were also arrested by NIA in a separate case lodged in January 2016 and they had also moved the high court.

The agency had alleged that they were supporters of ISIS and were in touch with active members of the outfit.

NIA had earlier alleged that the arrested accused, during interrogation, had admitted to "their involvement in the case regarding recruiting and financing persons willing to join the Caliphate of ISIS at Syria".

They were arrested for alleged offences under several sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC.