A special NIA court on Tuesday sentenced two Bangladeshi nationals belonging to the Ansarullah Bangla Team terror group to seven years rigorous imprisonment for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in India. Sahadat Hussain, 26, from Bangladesh’s Jessore district, and Umar Farooque, 27, from Dhaka, were convicted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and the Foreigners Act.
They were sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment and the court also imposed a fine of Rs 26,000 on Hussain and Rs 33,000 on Farooque. They were both arrested on different occasions in November 2017.
The case, initially registered by Special Task Force (STF) Kolkata on November 21, 2017, pertains to the arrest of five members of the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) in Kolkata. ABT is a proscribed terrorist organisation in Bangladesh.
Four of the arrested ABT members were Bangladeshi nationals while one was Indian. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the case on March 1, 2018. Investigation by the NIA revealed that the Bangladeshi members of the ABT entered India in 2016 in pursuance of the conspiracy to commit terrorist acts in the country.
They travelled and stayed at Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai in the guise of labourers. The accused tried to procure chemicals from a shop in Patna and tried to establish hideouts in Ranchi, the NIA probe revealed. They also tried to procure arms and ammunition in Kolkata.
Several incriminating materials like maps of Sealdah Railway Station and Howrah Bridge, literature on explosives and bomb-making, fake Aadhaar card, fake PAN card were seized from their possession, the agency said. The trial against the remaining three arrested and charge-sheeted accused will continue.
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