Five alleged key operatives of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a banned Bangladesh-based terrorist organisation, were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Kolkata court for their involvement in a conspiracy to carry out bomb blasts and other subversive activities across India.
While three convicts are from West Bengal and Assam, two are Bangladesh nationals. They are Anwar Hossain Faruque alias Enam (38) and Mohd Rubel alias Rafique (26) from Jamalpur in Bangladesh; Maulana Yusuf Sheikh alias Sheikh Yusuf alias Abu Bakkar alias Suleman Sheikh (31) of Burdwan, and Mohd Sahidul Islam alias Samim alias Asraful Alam alias Nirmal alias Surya Samim (22) and Jabirul Islam (30) of Borbeta in Assam.
Mohd Rubel alias Rafique and Jabirul Islam were earlier convicted in the 2014 Khagragarh (Burdwan) bomb blast case also.
The verdict was pronounced by Rohan Sinha, Special Judge, NDPS Court, City Sessions Court, Calcutta, after a trial in an investigation by the Kolkata Police’s Special Task Force (STF). The STF had registered the case following an input over illegal activities of alleged JMB members. Subsequent physical and technical surveillance had revealed “a conspiracy to destabilise the country”.
Maulana Yusuf was also given an additional life sentence for offense punishable under Section 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by waging, or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against Indian government). The Bangladeshi nationals were also penalised under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.
“Intelligence gathered indicated that the terror module members were planning to illegally enter India through the Indo-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district to meet their Indian associates,” an official involved in the probe said.
“Their objective was to carry out subversive activities such as bomb blasts in parts of North-east India and South Indian states and other parts of the country,” the official added.
“The group’s motivations, as documented, were driven by their belief that India was a major hurdle in implementing Sharia in Bangladesh and to establish a greater Bangladesh and taking a revenge against alleged atrocities on Rohingya and people in Kashmir,” he further said.
The module’s Bangladeshi members entered India by procuring fake Indian documents, it was alleged.
In September 2016, the STF had arrested six persons from Bongaon, Basirhat, Cooch Behar, and Assam. A large cache of explosives, IED components, documents detailing their plans for explosions in India, organisational charts, cash, a laptop and an SD card were recovered following their arrest.
Though the accused were initially booked at the STF police station case but were also taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Khagragarh bomb blast case.
One of the accused, Abdul Kalam alias Azad alias Kalam, was discharged from the case due to lack of evidence.