The court also imposed a fine of Rs 57,000 on Jahidul Islam for offenses including robbery, criminal conspiracy, fundraising, and procuring ammunition to advance terrorist activities in the country. This brings the total number of convictions in related cases to 11.
Bengaluru: A Bengaluru special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) sentenced Bangladeshi national Jahidul Islam to seven years of rigorous imprisonment on Monday for promoting terrorism in India. He was acting on behalf of Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh India (JMB – India), according to officials.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 57,000 on Jahidul Islam for offenses including robbery, criminal conspiracy, fundraising, and procuring ammunition to advance terrorist activities in the country. This brings the total number of convictions in related cases to 11.
The case originated in June 2019 when Bengaluru police registered a complaint based on information obtained by the NIA during its investigation of the 2014 Burdwan blast by the agency’s Kolkata Branch Office. The NIA took over the probe, linking it to several connected robbery cases.
Investigations revealed that Jahidul Islam, along with JMB leader Salauddin Salehin, had illegally entered India in 2014 after escaping Bangladeshi police custody over the 2005 serial blasts in Bangladesh. While in hiding, Jahidul and his associates orchestrated the Burdwan blast in October 2014.
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Following the incident, Jahidul fled to Bengaluru, where he radicalized and recruited young Muslim men from West Bengal and Assam to further JMB’s anti-India agenda. He was also linked to the 2018 Bodhgaya blast, according to the NIA.
The probe found Jahidul had conspired to fund JMB’s operations through robberies. In 2018, his group carried out four robberies in Bengaluru, using the stolen money to procure weapons, secure hideouts, and train recruits for terrorist activities.
Efforts to apprehend the absconding accused and further investigations into the case are ongoing.
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