New Delhi: Mohammad Arshad Warsi, arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell Monday in connection with the alleged Islamic State (IS) Pune module, “was in touch” with 2020 Delhi riots accused Sharjeel Imam, sources in Delhi Police have told ThePrint.
Jharkhand native Warsi, a BTech graduate from Aligarh Muslim University currently pursuing his PhD in ‘Islamic Principles in Management’ from Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), has been mentioned in the Delhi Police chargesheet in connection with the February 2020 riots.
According to the chargesheet, Warsi was a member of ‘Students of Jamia (SOJ)’, a student body at JMI.
The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested two others — Shahnawaz alias Shafi Uzzama and Mohammed Rizwan Ashraf — along with Warsi in the IS module case. The arrest came after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) last month announced a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh for information on the main accused, Shahnawaz.
The Delhi Police chargesheet says Imam was in touch with the “radical SOJ”. Investigators claim SOJ is a radical group that distributed pamphlets to moblise students of the university against the Supreme Court’s 2019 judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case.
Fifty-three people were killed and nearly 600 wounded in the riots that broke out on 23 February 2020 amid tensions surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act. ThePrint has a copy of the Delhi Police chargesheet in connection with the violence.
“Chats also reveal that both Muslim students of JNU and SOJ were distributing pamphlets in various mosques in Delhi,” the chargesheet, submitted in September 2020, said.
The chargesheet further says: “Sharjeel Imam revealed his intention of joining the protest of United Against Hate, at Jantar Mantar on 7 December 2019 in his chats to Arshad Warsi of SOJ”.
Screenshots of this purported conversation are annexed to the chargesheet, which also alleges that Imam had contacted Warsi for “mobilisation” for the Delhi riots.
Soon after the arrest Monday, police claimed that Warsi, Shahnawaz and Ashraf extensively read on the internet information about different types of religious indoctrination, and had planned “attacks” in India.
“They had conducted reconnaissance in western and southern India to conduct controlled trial explosions. They are very educated and Shahnawaz was sent PDF documents by their Pakistan-based handlers on bomb-making and how to increase potency of the bombs,” Special Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) H.S. Dhaliwal said.
Police claim to have seized bomb-making manuals, as well as pistols, cartridges, elementary plastics, and pipes from Shahnawaz’s hideout in Delhi.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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