Guwahati, Apr 3 (PTI): A court here on Wednesday extended the police remand of IIT-Guwahati student, arrested for allegedly pledging allegiance to terror group ISIS, by another five days.
The accused, Touseef Ali Farouqui, a fourth-year B Tech student of the Bioscience department was produced before the Kamrup(Metro) District and Sessions Judge Raktim Duara after the period of his nine-day police remand ended on Wednesday.
Farouqui was arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on March 24 and booked under sections related to being a member of an unlawful association and for advocating, abetting, advising and inciting unlawful activities.
He was also booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for being a party to criminal conspiracy, conspiring to commit offences by waging or abetting to wage war and an act of concealing the existence of a desire to wage war against the nation.
The prosecution on Wednesday sought an extension of his remand by another five days which was granted along with the request of adding two more sections under the UAPA against the accused.
The two new sections relate to being a member of an unlawful association and committing the offence of giving support to a terrorist organisation.
The accused was detained on March 23 at Hajo in Kamrup district and arrested the next day. Assam Police’s Special Task Force (STF) Inspector General Parthasarathi Mahanta had earlier said that after interrogating him, police found credible evidence of his links with ISIS and he was arrested.
The student was detained three days after the ISIS India head Haris Farooqi alias Harish Ajmal Farukhi and his associate Anurag Singh alias Rehan were arrested in Dhubri district after they had crossed over from Bangladesh.
STF Additional Superintendent of Police Kalyan Kumar Pathak had told reporters that the student had sent an email, in which he claimed that he was on the way to join ISIS.
A black flag, “apparently similar to that of ISIS”, was found in his hostel room and has been sent for verification to specialised agencies which deal with proscribed outfits.
Farouqui’s father had said on Tuesday that his son had spoken to his family members in Delhi that he would not continue with his studies and had other plans.
”I live in Siwan in Bihar but he was with my wife in Delhi. My son had told her about not continuing with his studies as he had other plans,” the student’s father Azmat Ali Farouqui told reporters.
He said that there was definitely something which his mother knew about but kept that hidden from the others.
Both parents had arrived here on Friday and had gone to the police station where he was lodged to meet him the next day.
His father did not say anything about what transpired during the meeting but claimed that they came to know about their son’s arrest from newspapers and television news. PTI
