Kolkata court gives 6-year RI to JMB finance handler

Kolkata: The Special Court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Kolkata last week sentenced one of the five accused in a Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) anti-India terror conspiracy case, Najiur Rahman Pavel, to six years of rigorous imprisonment (RI). JMB is a banned Bangladeshi terror group. The court found Pavel, alias Joyram Byapari or Joseph, guilty under sections 120B, 468, and 471 of the IPC, sections 18 and 38 of the UA(P) Act, and section 14A(b) of the Foreigners Act, as well as section 12 of the Indian Passport Act. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000. The accused was a key Hundi player in the JMB network. He was arrested by Kolkata Police STF in July 2021. A Hundi is an unconditional order in writing made by a person directing another to pay a certain sum of money to a person named in the order. Hundis have no legal status. The STF police station in Kolkata had registered the case concerning the illegal entry of Bangladeshi nationals Sk Shabbir, Joseph, and others into India. According to police, members and sympathisers of JMB conspired with their unknown associates to wage war against India by recruiting and motivating Muslim youths from within India and Bangladesh. The youths were motivated to establish a ‘Caliphate' by removing India's democratically elected govt through the use of criminal force.The NIA, which took over the case in August 2021, filed its chargesheet in Jan 2022. All five are currently in judicial custody. A second accused, Rabiul Islam, was convicted last year. The trial against the remaining three was on.