Bengaluru: Sleuths from the Directorate of Enforcement (ED), Bengaluru zonal office, Tuesday conducted search operations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, at eight locations in Bengaluru in an investigation linked to an alleged IS recruitment and terror-funding module.During the searches, incriminating electronic records and digital devices linked to the alleged offence were seized, and proceeds of crime amounting to Rs 7.5 lakh were frozen.The search operation was carried out in an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) registered by the ED on the basis of an FIR filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) relating to alleged IS recruitment activities involving Iqra Welfare Trust, Guidance for Mankind (GFM) Trust, and certain individuals based in Bengaluru.The NIA, during the course of its investigation, arrested businessman Irfan Nasir, Ahamed Abdul Cader (business analyst in private bank), Dr Mohammed Tauqir Mahmood (BDS from KIMS, Bengaluru), and Zuhab Hameed Shakeel Manna alias Zohaib Manna (IT professional). Another suspect, Mohammed Shihab (IT professional), was absconding. NIA filed a chargesheet naming the above five persons as accused.According to the chargesheet, the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy to radicalise and recruit impressionable Muslim youth from Bengaluru into IS. They allegedly identified and radicalised recruits through a Muslim “personality development” workshop called Iqra Camp and a weekly study circle called Quran Circle, and thereafter raised and channelled funds — sourced from individuals, trusts and personal savings — to facilitate the illegal travel of recruits to Syria via Turkey to fight for IS against the Syrian govt.The accused are also alleged to have exploited sentiments around the anti-CAA/NRC protests to incite Muslims against non-Muslims, and to have propagated IS ideology through encrypted social media platforms.
