The NIA had re-registered the case after taking over the investigation on April 5, 2020
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Wednesday filed the first supplementary chargesheet against three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives, including a missing Pakistani woman, in an online recruitment case registered last year in West Bengal.
The chargesheet was filed in the NIA special court in Kolkata against Tania Parveen alias Isranoor and Refite of Malayapur-Baduria (North 24 Parganas), Sayyad M Idris alias Munna of Anganavadi (Karnataka), and missing accused Ayesha alias Ayesha Burhan and Ayesha Siddiqi of Gali Brahwali village of Sargoda in Punjab (Pakistan), an NIA spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the case was initially registered on March 18 last year at the Baduria Police Station in Bengal's North 24 Parganas district following the arrest of Parveen, a member of the proscribed Pakistan-based terrorist organisation.
The NIA had re-registered the case after taking over the investigation on April 5, 2020 and had already filed a chargesheet against Parveen under various sections of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
"Parveen was a college student and was radicalised and recruited in cyberspace by Pakistan-based cadres of LeT. She was co-admin of various social media groups espousing secessionist ideas on Kashmir with accused Ayesha Burhan, a Pakistan-based cadre of LeT's women's wing," the spokesman said.
The spokesperson said Parveen, in association with other accused members of LeT in India and Pakistan, indulged in unlawful activities, radicalised, recruited and motivated other people through cyberspace for a violent "Jihad" against India.
"She and other accused were brainwashing impressionable youth and propagating the ideology of LeT, thus conspiring to wage war against the State," the spokesperson said as more charges were framed against her in the latest chargesheet.
On April 15, the NIA arrested schoolteacher Altaf Ahmad Rather from his residence in north Kashmir's Bandipora district in the case.
"Investigation has revealed that Rather is a schoolteacher in Bandipora and was a sympathiser of the LeT. Parveen had come in contact with him over social media platforms and he was instrumental in introducing her to LeT members based in Pakistan, in pursuance of a conspiracy to radicalise, motivate and recruit youths for violent "Jihad" on India," the NIA had said.
However, Rather was not named in the chargesheet as further investigation in the case is still underway, officials said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)