(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.)

M. Jothiraman, J.

1. 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, 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.

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 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 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 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 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 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.

                   (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, 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 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.