NIA court convicts 13 Muslim youths in 2012 terror module case

September 16, 2016

Bengaluru, Sep 16: A National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court here on Thursdayconvicted 13 persons accused in the Karnataka terror module case, wherein several educated Muslim youths were arrested from their houses and rented rooms in Bengaluru, Hubballi and other places four years ago.

niaSources in the NIA said that this was the first time the accused have pleaded guilty in a terror case. Special court judge Muralidhar Pai adjourned the case to Friday, when he will pronounce the quantum of punishment.

The charge was that the youths had planned to assassinate several prominent personalities including BJP leaders and pro-BJP journalists. Later, a couple of the arrested youths had got clean chit in the case. Some of the accused are still absconding, according to the NIA. The arrest spree started on August 29, 2012 when a team of the Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru City police nabbed two bike-borne youths in Basaveshwaranagar police limits.

The convicted are: Syed Tanzeem Ahmed of Ben galuru, Dr Imran Ahmed of Bengaluru, Dr Nayeem Siddiqui of Davanagere, Ubaid Ur Rehman of Hyderabad, Shoaib Ahmed Mirza alias Chotu of Hubballi, Abdul Hakeem Jamdar of Hubballi, Riyaz Ahmed Byahatti of Hubballi, Zafar Iqbal Sholapur of Hubb alli, Moha mmed Sa diq Lashkar of Hubballi, Mehaboob Bagalkot of Hubballi, Baba alias Mehboob Bagalkot and Wahid Hussain alias Saahil.

Public prosecutor Arjun Ambalapatta said, the conviction was made mainly under IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 307 (attempt to murder) and Section 38 of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Arms Act, and Section 3 read with 25 of the Arms Act, 1959. The sections invoked entail prison terms of up to 10 years.

Police said the suspects were linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harkat-ul-Jehad-al-Islami, and were being directed by handlers in Saudi Arabia to eliminate prominent personalities, including a newspaper editor, a newspaper columnist who is now a BJP MP representing Mysuru-Kodagu constituency, and right-wing leaders.

The case was later transferred to the National Investigation Agency. Six months after the arrests, NIA released two of the suspects, saying there was no prosecutable evidence against them, while a court released on bail a third suspect after the agency failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated six months of the arrest.

Pleaded guilty in the hope of early release'

The Federation of Muslim NGOs has regretted that the 13 accused pleaded guilty because they were unable to bear the torture of remaining in prison.

"It is a sad reflection of the way investigations are being conducted in terror-related cases. Hundreds of witnesses are cited and a chargesheet running into several thousand pages is filed. The trial takes several years to complete. The draconian Unlawful Activities Prohibition Act ensures no bail is granted and the accused, even if innocent, have to spend several years in jail," read the statement.

"We further call upon the government to ensure the trials are expedited and the Act is amended to ensure bail is granted when proof is not convincing .... Call upon to form an independent review committee comprising a HC judge ... to review the evidence collected before granting sanction for prosecution to ensure innocents are not harassed," read the statement.

"Police say they have ample material evidence against our children. They have been in jail for too long now and have not got bail. Instead of dragging the case, our children agreed to plead guilty as they have already spent four years in jail, and undergo punishment. At least now they can look at an early release after they complete their terms," a family member said, on condition of anonymity.

Only 32 Of 260 gave evidence

The 13 accused stood motionless as NIA special court judge Muralidhar Pai held them guilty, while some of their family members let out exclamations of disappointment.

Around 10.30am Thursday, the men were brought in police vans, each accompanied by a policeman, as they walked to court hall 54 on the third floor of the City Civil Court complex. The judge said he would pronounce the judgment by 3pm. The men were taken out for lunch in the van and brought back to the hall by 2.30pm.

The 13 accused had been denied bail and were in jail during the course of the trial, where only 32 of the 260 witnesses turned up to give evidence.

Comments

Bopanna
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

\Educated Muslim youth \" ?
Madrassa education ????? Get ready to go meet your 72 virgins"

Bopanna
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

Terror has only one religion = Islam

Abdullah
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

The namo naresh who killed baliga was given bail.
The educated Muslim youths who didn't do any crime are convicted.
Wah re wah incredible RSS ruling India.

Deepak D
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

Who said terror does not have any religion. Anything or nothing can become a terror act if the arrested are Muslims. and any terror act can become nothing if the arrested are Sangh Parivar activists.

observer
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

Judge Murlidhar Pai a pakka RSS man.

Althaf
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

really injustice to the youths, how their family must be feeling about the injustice of india.

Nazir
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

Seriously shameful to our court. hoping of early release they accepted the guilty, for everything we should answer one day, that day will come soon to everyone.

Narain
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

this terrorists produced by Muslim's NGO's itself, they have to protect them from all the side. in every case this happens. their plan is to take compensation from govt. so they are pushing the case to so many years, in this 60% goes to this NGO's for protecting them, but in this case they failed to protect their children.

Mohan
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

this Muslim NGO's main job is this only first our court should punish this fellows for arguing against court decision.

Pran Kumar
 - 
Friday, 16 Sep 2016

Why naming Muslim youths? Terror dont have any religion.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 6,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 6: Karnataka registered 378 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, breaching the 5,000-mark to settle at 5,213, said an official, here on Saturday. "New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday 6 p.m. is 378," said a health official.

Of the new cases, 333 are local returnees, comprising 88 per cent of the new infections. Returnees from Maharashtra accounted for 99 per cent new cases at 329.

Majority infections in Karnataka nowadays are returnees, mostly from the state''s northern neighbour. Only 27 new infections were contacts of earlier cases.

On Saturday, cases spiked in Udupi, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada.

Udupi witnessed the highest number of cases (121), followed by Yadgir (103), Kalaburagi (69), Dakshina Kannada (24), Bengaluru Urban (18), Vijayapura and Davangere (6 each), Belagavi (5), Gadag (4), Mandya, Hassan, Dharwad and Haveri (3 each), Raichur, Chikkaballapura and Uttara Kannada (2 each) and Bidar, Tumkur, Kolar and Koppal (1 each).

Among the new cases, three patients from Bengaluru Urban are suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and another from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

There were seven cases with international travel history to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one to Turkey.

Meanwhile, 280 people were discharged in the past 24 hours and two persons succumbed to the virus, one from Bidar and another from Vijayapura. Of all the cases, 3,184 are active, 1,968 discharged, 59 dead and 11 in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 11,862 people, of which 11,431 reports returned negative. In total, 3.72 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 3.61 lakh have returned negative.

Currently, Udupi is leading the state''s Covid-19 burden with 785 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (448), Yadgir (407), Raichur (320) and Mandya (163) among others.

Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 13 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapura (3 each), among others.

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News Network
March 24,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 24: A Covid-19 patient from Kasaragod, who recently came from abroad travelled to Mangaluru twice, revealed Karnataka department of health and family welfare.

The 54-year-old person is confirmed as Covid-19 positive case yesterday.

He landed at Mangalore International Airport on March 10 at 5.30pm by Air India Express flight.

From there, he had travelled in his own vehicle to Kasaragod. He had coffee near Kasaragod and reached home at 7.30pm.

On March 11, he had visited local fish market and returned home at 10pm.

He had consulted a local doctor at Kasaragod on March 18 and later visited to Kasturba Medical College, Attavar at 3pm, visited reception and consulted a doctor.

He had tea at KMC canteen and travelled in an auto to Medicity and brought medicines and returned to Kasaragod by KSRTC bus.

Again he travelled to Mangaluru on March 20 in a private vehicle and visited a doctor and returned back to Kasargod in a private vehicle.

The health department has requested all passengers who travelled in the above said flight/aircraft, and KSRTC bus can self-report by dialing 104 or other helpline numbers.

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News Network
February 12,2020

Kathmandu, Feb 12: Nepal has suspended the licence of a mountainous resort for three months due to poor security management and managerial weakness at the hotel where eight Indian tourists, including four minors, died of possible asphyxiation, according to media reports.

Kathmandu: Nepal has suspended the licence of a mountainous resort for three months due to poor security management and managerial weakness at the hotel where eight Indian tourists, including four minors, died of possible asphyxiation, according to media reports.

Tragedy struck a group of 15 tourists from Kerala when eight of them died on January 21 due to possible asphyxiation after they fell unconscious probably due to a gas leak from a heater in their room at a mountainous resort in Makwanpur district.

The tourists were airlifted to HAMS hospital here where they were pronounced dead on arrival. Makwanpur police said the victims might have fallen unconscious due to asphyxiation.

The Department of Tourism on Sunday imposed a ban on the operation of Daman-based Everest Panorama Resort for three months based on the report submitted by a probe committee formed to investigate the death of the Indian tourists from Kerala, the Kathmandu Post reported on Tuesday.

The department decided to shut down the resort as the report submitted by a probe committee pointed out poor security management and managerial weakness at the resort for the incident, it said.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had formed the probe committee under Surendra Thapa, the director of the Department of Tourism. After a field inspection, the committee had submitted its report a few days ago, pointing to the shortcomings of the resort.

During the investigation, the committee found the resort had not been following the recommended safety measures and was providing substandard services to its guests, The Himalayan Times reported.

Moreover, the committee discovered that the resort had not fulfilled the criteria set by DoT to be categorised a 'resort', it said.

Mira Acharya, director of DoT was quoted as saying by the report that the resort's operations have been halted as per Section 15 of Tourism Act-1979.

"If the resort owner wishes to resume services after three months of suspension, the resort should be upgraded as per the Hotel, Lodge, Restaurant, Bar and Tourist Guide Rules-1981 and also meet the criteria mentioned in a notice published in the Nepal Gazette under the title 'Hotel Classification and Criteria'," Acharya said.

She added that the resort would also have to undergo the Environment Impact Assessment to get the permission from DoT to resume operation.

Meanwhile, the resort management has said that they will work towards meeting the standards fixed by the department and run the resort efficiently.

"We will work towards meeting the standards fixed by the department and run the resort efficiently. We are saddened by the tragic incident. We will ensure that such incidents don't occur in the future,” said Sudesh Gautam, the operator of the resort was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post.

The group, after travelling to Pokhara -- a popular mountainous tourist destination -- was on their way back home and stayed at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman.

Those who were killed were Praveen Krishnan Nair, his wife Saranya Sasi and their three children and Ranjith Kumar Adatholath Punathil, his wife Indu Lakshmi Peethambaran Ragalatha and their son.

Everest Panorama Resort was established 28 years ago in Daman Simbhajyang area, a tourist destination in Bagmati Province. The tourist numbers, according to Thaha Hotel Association, have plunged after the tragic accident of January 27.

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