Karnataka police arrest 2 under UAPA in Shivamogga I-Day stabbing case

The clashes had erupted over a dispute about putting up flex banners of Hindutva icon Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and 18th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan.

One of the arrested has been identified as 21-year-old Syed Yaseen, a resident of Siddeshwaranagara in Shivamogga.

The other, 22-year-old Maaz Muneer Ahmed, was picked up from Mangaluru, where he was said to be in hiding. Maaz is also a resident of Shivamogga.

The third accused, identified as Shariq from Soppugudde in the Thirthahalli town, is absconding, and the police claim that they have definite clues on his whereabouts and are pursuing them.

The arrests happened after the Shivamogga rural police raided 11 places, including the houses of the accused.

The cops told South First that they followed the strands of what happened in Bhadravati on Independence Day.

Attempt-to-murder charges along with UAPA sections were slapped on Mohammed Zabiullah alias Charbi, Tanvir Ahmed, Abdul Rehman, and Nadeem Faizal, who were involved in the stabbing incident of 20-year-old garment employee Prem Singh, who worked in Gandhinagar in Bengaluru.

A copy of the FIR pertaining to the case. (Supplied)

With the arrest of the accused, their mobile phones were seized. The police found certain incriminating evidence on Zabiullah’s mobile phone, including videos, jihadi content, and audio records.

Because of this, they suspect that he was in touch with proscribed terror outfits, and was in contact with radical elements on social media groups.

Delving deeper and after conducting searches at Zabiullah’s house, the police identified a few other suspects who were in contact with him.

The cops started tracking their movements and, through their local intelligence network, learnt about the three youths — Syed Yaseen, Maaz, and Shariq — who were also suspected to be radicalised elements.

Upon confirming that the trio along with Zabiullah had links with some terror outfits, the police raided their houses on Monday and arrested two of them.

Syed Yaseen and Maaz were then produced before a magistrate, which sent them to the custody of the local police for seven days for further investigation.

The cops seized their mobile phones, where they found videos on how to make improvised explosive devices (IEDs), jihadi literature contents, and audio speeches that inspired their radicalised goals, a senior police officer said.

According to the complainant, Bhadravathi subdivision Additional Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Dayama, the accused were actively training from January till their arrest to carry out their disruptive activities.

The prime accused, Syed Yaseen, is said to be an Electronics and Electrical Engineer who is well-versed in designing “delayed circuits”, commonly in used time bombs, a senior police officer said.

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said that the Shivamogga city police arrested two persons on charges of having links with ISIS, and he lauded the efforts of the state police in cracking the case.

Meanwhile, Yaseen’s father said that his son had been missing for 15 days, and he had even approached the local police station to file a missing person’s complaint, but the cops failed to take it.

However, on Monday, Yaseen’s family was informed that he had been arrested under the UAPA and was in police custody.