National Investigation Agency opposes bail plea of youth held for Islamic State involvement

The National Investigating Agency (NIA) Thursday filed a reply, opposing the bail application of Kalyan youth Areeb Majeed —arrested for visiting Iraq and carrying out unlawful activities.

The NIA in its reply said that while several grounds mentioned by Mr Majeed were false, there were also some contentions raised by him which did not require going into at this stage.

Among others, Majeed sought bail on grounds that the NIA had no jurisdiction to either register a FIR or investigate the alleged offence in 2014.

He contended that the alleged offence was committed in Iraq and Syria, which was beyond India’s jurisdiction boundary.

He stated that the NIA had been given the power to probe an offence beyond India and apply the NIA Act to persons committing the schedule offence beyond India only in 2019, via an amendment to the NIA Act through the ‘National Investigation Agency (Amendment) Bill, 2019.

Majeed also cited delay in conducting trial as a reason for seeking bail.

He claimed that the agency had assured the Bombay high court that the trial would be concluded expeditiously, but it was going at a slow pace.

According to the prosecution, Majeed, along with three of his friends – Fahad Shaik, Aman Tandel and Shaheen Tanki — all engineering students — flew to Baghdad on May 23, 2014, as part of a group of 22 pilgrims visiting religious shrines in Iraq.

Upon returning to India, the other pilgrims told the police that Majeed and his friends had gone to Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad that had emerged as the epicentre of Iraq’s deadly insurgency.

Source: Asian Age