[Cites 9, Cited by 0]
Madras High Court
A.Alfasith … vs Union Of India on 19 January, 2026
Author: P.Velmurugan
Bench: P.Velmurugan
Crl.A.No.1877 of 2025
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED : 19.01.2026
CORAM :
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P.VELMURUGAN
and
THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.JOTHIRAMAN
Crl.A.No.1877 of 2025
A.Alfasith … Petitioner / Accused
Vs.
Union of India, Rep by is
Deputy Superintendent of Police,
National Investigation Agency,
Chennai-600 010.
(Ref: R.C.No.03/2024/NIA/CHE) … Respondent / Complainant
PRAYER: Criminal Appeal filed under Section 21(4) of National
Investigation Agency Act, 2008 praying to set aside the order passed in
Crl.M.P.No.274 / 2025 dated 13.10.2025 on the file of the Hon’ble Special
Court under the National Investigating Agency Act, 2008, Sessions Court
for Exclusive Trial for Bomb Blast Cases Chennai at Poonamallee,
Chennai and grant bail to the appellant in Spl.C.C.No.05 of 2025, pending
on the file of the learned Special Court under NIA Act.
For Appellant : Mr.I.Abdul Basith
For Respondent : Mr.R.Karthikeyan,
Special Public Prosecutor for NIA Cases
JUDGMENT
(Judgment of the Court was made by M.Jothiraman, J.)
This Criminal Appeal has been filed seeking to set aside the order
passed in Crl.M.P.No.274 / 2025 dated 13.10.2025 on the file of the
Hon’ble Special Court under the National Investigating Agency Act, 2008,
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Sessions Court for Exclusive Trial for Bomb Blast Cases Chennai at
Poonamallee, Chennai and grant bail to the appellant in Spl.C.C.No.05 of
2025, pending on the file of the learned Special Court under NIA Act.
2. Brief case of the prosecution is that the appellant /petitioner,
being a supporter and member of 15 organization, had allegedly
downloaded ISIS related content from a social media channel and
endorsed incriminating ideology of ISIS. The appellant and his associates
created a Whatsapp group ‘Black Soldiers’ with an intention to carryout
unlawful activities. The Black Soldiers group is a ISIS terrorist
organisation protesting against NRC & CAA and thereby supporting
Khilafath in India. The Black Soldiers group used to spread videos,
images to the gullible Muslim youth with an intention to unrest in the civil
society and threaten the unity, integrity and communal harmony of the
country. Therefore, the appellant has been arrested in connection with
R.C.No.03/2024 / NIA / CHE dated 10.12.2024 for the alleged offences
under Sections 196, 353 of BNS and Sections 13, 38 and 39 of UAPA Act
and remanded to judicial custody by the respondent on 28.01.2025. The
respondent filed charge sheet against the appellant on 12.08.2025, charges
were framed on 28.08.2025 and the case is pending trial.
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3. According to the petitioner, he is an innocent and law abiding
citizen and he has been falsely implicated in the case based on vague and
rhetoric allegations and charge of conspiracy to commit terrorist attack
based on communal profiling and stereotyping on the allegation of sharing
videos shared from prescribed terrorist organization ISIS.
4. The respondent has filed an objection / counter before this Court
denying the averments made in the bail petition as well as in this appeal
by stating that the appellant and his associates actively involved in
propagating and supporting the ideology of ISIS, a proscribed terrorist
organisation. They recruited vulnerable youths with the intention of
furthering the activities of ISIS in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India and
thereby establishing Khilafath / Islamic rule in India. The appellant
circulated many incriminating videos, documents, images etc., through a
Whatsapp group called “Black Flag Soldiers” and “Marathadi Nanbargal”
through which preaching of Zahram Hasim, the mastermind of the Easter
Sunday Bomb Blast in Sri Lanka. The videos also included the activities
of ISIS and preparation and explosion of bombs. According to the
respondent, during the course of investigation, NIA has collected
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sufficient prosecutable evidence in the form of Oral and Documentary
evidence and charge sheet has been filed against the accused on
25.07.2025.
5. The Court below, upon hearing either side, dismissed the bail
application on the ground that if the appellant / accused is released on bail,
he may tamper the witnesses and evidence, which would adversely affect
the Court proceedings and trial and other accused persons and suspects are
yet to be secured in this case. Aggrieved over the dismissal of the bail
application, the appellant / accused has preferred the present appeal.
6. Mr.L.Abdul Basith, learned counsel appearing for the appellant /
accused put forth the following contentions:
(i) The Charge Sheet filed by the respondent against
the appellant is purely based on surmises and conjectures
and there is no overtact of any offence under Sections 13 and
39 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 [in
short “UA(P) Act”] and further, no incriminating material
have been recovered against the appellant.
(ii) The entire prosecution is solely relying on
accomplice statement, which has no priority or sanctity to it.
The charge sheet filed by the respondent does not contain
any overtact of any specific conspiracy or attempt to
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commit, or advocate, abet, advice the commission of
unlawful activity as defined under section 2(O) of the UA(P)
Act by the appellant / accused and he has not aid any
proscribed organisation and the alleged sharing of video in a
Whatsapp Group, on the face of it, do not constitute any
prima facie case.
(iii) The Court below failed to consider the fact that
for the same incriminating video, the appellant was already
made as prosecution witness No.56, by the Investigating
Agency in Spl.S.C.No.2 of 2022 with respect to the same
charges against one A.Mohamed Irfan and the same is
pending trial before the learned Special Court.
(iv) The appellant / accused is suffering long
incarceration from the period of his initial arrest and the
same amounts to violation of the appellant’s right to speedy
and fair trial.
(v) The appellant accused is the sole breadwinner of
the family and he has no bad antecedents and undertakes that
he will not tamper with any witness.
To strengthen his contentions, learned counsel for the appellant has relied
upon the decision of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in Thwaha Fasal and
Ors. v. Union of India [MANU / SC / 1000/ 2021] to show that mere
association with a terrorist organisation is not sufficient to attract Section
38 of UA(P) Act and mere support given to a terrorist organisation is not
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sufficient to attract Section 39. Yet another judgment of the Hon’ble
Supreme Court in Hitendra Vishnu Thakur and Ors. v. State of
Maharashtra and Ors. [MANU / SC/ 526/1994] to show that in some
cases where the designated Courts have charge-sheeted and/or convicted
an accused person under TADA even though there is not even an iota of
evidence from which it could be inferred, even prima facie, let alone
conclusively, that the crime was committed with the intention as
contemplated by the provisions of TADA, merely on the statement of the
investigating agency to the effect that the consequence of the criminal act
resulted in causing panic or terror in the society or in a section thereof.
Such orders result in the misuse of TADA. Yet another judgment of the
Hon’ble Supreme Court in Union of India v. K.A. Najeeb [AIR 2021SC
712] to show that suffering long incarceration amounts to violation of the
accused’ right to speedy and fair trial.
7. Per contra, learned Special Public Prosecutor appearing for the
respondent would submit that as per the final report, the appellant /
accused and his associates are actively involved in propagating and
supporting the ideology of ISIS, a proscribed terrorist organisation and
other Jihadist activities. They attempted to recruit vulnerable youths with
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the intention of furthering the activities of ISIS in Tamil Nadu and other
parts of India for establishing Khilafath, an Islamic rule in India. The
appellant and his associates created Whatsapp groups “Black Flag
Soldiers” on 28.04.2019 with an intention to clandestinely communicate
for carrying out unlawful activities and thereby threatened the unity,
security and communal harmony of the country. The appellant / accused
was added as one of the Admin members in the Whatsapp Group, which
proves that the appellant was involved in the said group and the profile
picture of this Whatsapp Group consist of images of knife, sword, black
flag etc., and the said Whatsapp group was extensively used for
clandestine communication during the organised protests against NRC &
CAA and other anti-national agitations, thereby supporting to establish
Khilafath, an Islamic rule in India. The learned Special Public Prosecutor
would further submit that the appellant / accused used Whatsapp group
“Black Flag Soldiers” and “Marathadi Nanbargal” to spread highly
incriminating videos, images etc., related to ISIS among the gullible
young Muslim boys in the locality of Thirumullaivasal and nearby areas
with ill intention to create unrest in the civil society and thereby
threatened the unity, security and communal harmony of the country. The
learned Special Public Prosecutor would further submit that the
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prosecution witnesses 12 to 19 and Documents D11 to D14 have well
supported to establish the involvement of the appellant and the allegations
against the appellant / accused is serious in nature as per the proviso to
Section 43D and 51 of UA(P) Act and therefore bail cannot be granted,
since a prima facie case has been made out against the appellant under
section 39 of UA(P) Act. Trial has been commenced and totally 23
witnesses were cited in the final report and totally 4 witnesses were
examined and if the appellant / accused is released on bail, there will be a
chance of hampering the evidence / witnesses and therefore, prays for
dismissal of this appeal.
8. We have considered the submissions made and also perused the
entire materials available on record.
9. It is seen that the Charge Sheet filed by the respondent in Para 17
shows the various facts disclosed during investigation. The forensically
extracted data from the mobile phones of the appellant, seized on
23.07.2022 and 28.01.2025 have been scrutinized and detailed reports in
D.10 & D15 was prepared. During scrutiny the following facts have been
established.
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(a) On 08.02.2022, Asik Icama student @ Mohammed Ashiq,
accused A2 in RC-20/2022 /NIA / DLI created a Whatsapp group “Google
Translaction Islamic country) with 25 members. Besides accused A
Alfasith (9791930811), one Sri Lank and national (9476476573) and one
Jammu and Kashmir number (7006218610) were also added in the group.
(b) On 20.04.2022, the Sri Lankan entity was discussed in the group
about the 2019, Easter Sunday bomb blast in Sri Lanka by the ISIS
volunteer Zahran Hashim. This establish that the Whatsapp Group was
used for interacting with foreign nationals and spreading ISIS ideology. It
was further established through the analysis of mobile phone of the
accused that on 28.04.2019, the appellant / accused and his associates
created Whatsapp group “Black Soldiers” and the profile picture of the
group consists knife, sword, black flag etc.
10. It is also seen from the charge sheet that A1 was taken in police
custody for 7 days from 21.02.2025 to 28.02.2025 and another 02 days on
4th & 5th June, 2025. During police custody recorded his voluntary
statement under Ex.D12. He disclosed that in February 2022, he shared /
forwarded about 15 to 20 ISIS related contents including videos, images,
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documents etc., in two Whatsapp groups, namely “Black Flag Soldiers”
and “Marathadi Nanbagal”. Most of the members in Whatsapp groups
“Black Soldiers” and “Marathadi Nanbargal” were identified. Majority of
them were examined in person and remaining were interacted through
online as they are presently working in abroad. The prosecution witnesses
stated that they had noticed incriminating videos and other contents posted
by the appellant / A1 in the said Whatsapp group including the speech of
Zahran Hashin during February, 2022. These statements will further
establish the act of the appellant for supporting and spreading the ideology
of ISIS among the Muslim youths. One of the highly incriminating and
infuriating videos shared by the appellant in the Whatsapp Group “Black
Soldiers” and “Marathadi Nanbargal” is the preaching of Zahran Hashim,
the mastermind of 2019 Easter Sunday Bomb Blast in Sri Lanka and
founder of National Thowheet Jamath (TNJ).
11. On perusal of the above said facts as disclosed in the Charge Sheet,
this Court is of the view that the allegations against the appellant / accused
are serious in nature and it is pertinent to note that as per proviso to
Section 43D of UA(P) Act, bail cannot be granted and that a prima facie
case is made out against the appellant / accused. Further, in the final
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report also, the investigating team has sought permission to continue
further investigation to unearth the larger conspiracy hatched by A1 and
his Associates. Further in the charge sheet, 24 witnesses have been cited in
the witness list before the learned Special Court, out of which 4 witnesses
have already been examined. In such circumstances, if the appellant /
accused is released on bail, there is a reasonable apprehension that he will
directly or indirectly make inducement to the witnesses, which will
adversely affect the trial proceedings. Moreover, the appellant / accused
has not made out any cogent ground for releasing him on bail. There is no
reason warrants interference with the impugned order of the Court below
and the present Criminal Appeal is liable to be dismissed.
12. Accordingly, this Criminal Appeal is dismissed, confirming the
order dated 13.10.2025 passed in Crl.M.P.No.274/2025 on the file of the
Special Court under the NIA Act, 2008, Sessions Court for Exclusive Trial
for Bomb Blast Cases, Poonamallee, Chennai.
(P.V.,J.) (M.J.R.,J.)
19.01.2026
Jvm
Index : Yes / No
Internet : Yes / No
Speaking /Non speaking Order
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P.VELMURUGAN, J.
and
M.JOTHIRAMAN, J.
Jvm
To
1.The Deputy Superintendent of Police,
National Investigation Agency,
Chennai-600 010.
2. Sessions Court for Exclusive Trial for Bomb Blast Cases
Chennai at Poonamallee, Chennai
3.The Public Prosecutor,
High Court, Madras.
19.01.2026
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