Vaijapur IS suspect remanded in 15 days of judicial custody

Aurangabad: The special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday remanded Imran Moazzam Khan (26), who arrested about a fortnight ago for his alleged links with IS, in 15-day judicial custody. The judicial custody of his suspected accomplices arrested from different parts of the country has been extended by another seven days.
During the course of investigation, the NIA has reportedly found out that the suspects were using lesser known internet messengers to avoid getting on the radar.
Imran was nabbed by NIA officials on the morning of February 23 from from Vaijapur tehsil in the district, about 71km from here. He was produced before the local court before being taken to New Delhi by an Air India flight on a transit remand.
The special NIA court remanded Imran, along with the other IS suspects, in 12-day police custody that came to end on Friday, following which he was produced before the court again.
While seeking extension in the remand of the arrested suspects, the NIA contested that the accused were in touch with some active members of the terror organisation through chatting applications, including Signal, Trillion and 'Skype. Their handlers were using these applications to motivate the suspects to join IS in furtherance of activities of its ideologies.Sources in the NIA said the accused were found to be using three different "not-so-common internet messengers and chatting applications" to avoid getting on radar of the agencies. Some of the arrested suspects are tech-savvy and well aware that the commonly used messengers and chatting applications are at times under the scanner of the agencies, sources added.The accused face several charges, including allegedly recruiting people to join the terror group. All of them have been slapped with the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.