Delhi HC rejects plea against refusal of bail to man who took ISIS oath

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has rejected a plea against the refusal of bail to Mohammad Heydaitullah, an alleged ISIS operative accused of disseminating ISIS ideology online, promoting enmity against Hindus, and transferring funds from his account to support the terrorist organization.
Heydaitullah, an MBA graduate from Jamia, is alleged to have taken oath (Bayath) to ISIS in 2018 and conspired to establish Sharia law in India under the ISIS banner.
A division bench of Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma dismissed the appeal against the order passed by the special NIA court refusing bail to the appellant.
The Division bench said, "Under these circumstances, this Court is of the opinion that the impugned order does not warrant any interference."
"In view of the above, the present appeal is dismissed and disposed of accordingly. Pending application(s), if any, are also disposed of," the bench ordered on January 10, 2025.
While dismissing the appeal, the bench headed by Justice Prathiba M Singh noted, " In the present case as has been highlighted previously, the Appellant admittedly in 2018 had taken an oath (Bayath) in the name of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi and Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi. Abu Bakr al Baghdadi is admittedly a well-known leader of ISIS and as per the chargesheet had declared the formation of a "caliphate" in June 2014."
The High Court also took note of the WhatsApp chats which showed the intention of the appellant to join ISIS.
"ISIS had been declared to be a terrorist organisation and judicial notice can be taken of the fact that the world at large knows about the activities of ISIS. The aforesaid chats further reflect the intention of the Appellant to join ISIS (Dawlah) and was ready to perform Hijrah (travel) for the same."
The bench noted, " In two sets of chats as it is recorded it was the Appellant who is asking other persons to find a way to reach Dawlah and not the other way around as claimed by the learned Senior Counsel for the Appellant. As already noted, the Appellant is an educated person and was well aware of the nature of the activities of ISIS."
"Moreover, it is not a case of passive support to a terrorist organisation, but rather the chats, as highlighted hereinabove, show that the Appellant was advocating Jihad in order to establish Khilafat ("Caliphate)". By doing so the Appellant was also trying to recruit the individuals on these online groups for such acts," the bench held.
The appellant Md. Heydaitullah had challenged the order of August 23, 2023, passed by a special NIA Judge in a case registered at P.S. NIA.
The appeal was opposed by Advocate Rahul Tyagi, the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) for NIA.
As per the case of the prosecution, certain inputs were received regarding proscribed terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) running a campaign in cyberspace for radicalizing youths and carrying out terrorist activities in India and elsewhere.
It is alleged that one cyber identity by the name of Qasim Saini alias Qasim Khurasani along with his associates was actively involved in creating and disseminating ISIS-centric propaganda with the intention of motivating youths to take part in violent jihad.
The case of the prosecution is that the Appellant is a close associate of co-accused Basit Kalam Siddiqui and had conspired to establish Sharia law in India under the flag of ISIS by waging Jihad.
It is alleged that the Appellant was disseminating the ISIS ideology through cyberspace, and was spreading hatred against the Government of India by promoting enmity against Hindus on social media.
It is further alleged that the Appellant had transferred funds for the cause of ISIS from his bank account. Also, various incriminating materials have been found in the electronic devices recovered from the Appellant during the investigation.
The Appellant was arrested by the NIA on 22.10.2022 and was charge-sheeted by second supplementary chargesheet of April 2023 for the offences punishable under Sections 17, 18, 38, 39 of the UAPA and Sections 120-B/153-A and 153-B of the IPC.
Investigation revealed that the appellant was a member of many pro-ISIS groups. Once he received a message in the Telegram group voices of Al-Hol camp related to the donation of some money for Al-Hol Camp from telegram ID 'umm_imara'.
In that message, umm_imara shared a bank account number of Canara Bank in which funds had to be sent. He further sent Rs. 15000 on 30.07.2020 through NEFT from his Yes Bank account.
The same transaction is reflected in his bank statement.
Further, during scrutiny of seized mobile data, it was found that the appellant was a member of Voices of Al-Hol Camp telegram I'd and he got motivated to donate funds for the cause of ISIS, NIA charge sheet reads.
It is further alleged that he while chatting on a telegram group Voice of Al Hol camp got a message to donate money to support women and children of ISIS fighters, from a telegram user @ umm_imara. The bank account details for depositing the money were shared on the said group. He as an ardent member of ISIS, decided to donate the sum of Rs 15000.
During investigations, he was questioned regarding the transfer of money from his bank account to the bank account shared on the telegram group Al Hol Camp to help the cause of ISIS.
He informed that he wanted to help the women and children of ISIS fighters, so he transferred the money. This itself proves that he is an ISIS sympathiser. It is also corroborated by witnesses, the agency said.
Senior Counsel appeared for the Appellant and submitted that there was no evidence connecting the Appellant to any terrorist organization including ISIS.
The only allegation, which is relied upon by the prosecution, is the remittance of Rs15,000 from the Yes Bank account of the Appellant to one Mohd. Unais, which is not sufficient to hold that the Appellant was either a member of any terrorist organization or had in any manner donated or contributed to any terrorist organization for furthering its cause.
It was further submitted that in the initial FIR of 29.06.2021, no accusations were made against the Appellant. It was only after the Appellant was arrested on 20 October 2022 that this banking transaction was relied upon and the Appellant was arrayed as a co-accused in the second supplementary chargesheet.
Counsel appearing on behalf of the Appellant also submitted that the Appellant had not made any direct remittance to the lady Afa Ibrahim and the witness Mohammad Unais, to whom the Appellant had transferred Rs. 15,000 on 30.07.2020, had made a second remittance of equivalent Maldivian Rufiyaa to Afa Ibrahim, on the same date.
Further, it was submitted that there is no material on record showing that Afa Ibrahim, belonged to ISIS or that she was running any telegram group, bearing Telegram ID "umm_imara".
In the reply filed by the NIA, in respect of the telegram chats, it is recorded " Further during investigations it emerged that one lady having Telegram account similar to "umm_imara" i.e "umm3imarah" and "ummimarah0" used to raise funds for ISIS on the name of charity work for Al-Hol Camp. This clearly establishes that the accused Md. Heydaitullah had intentionally provided funds for ISIS.