Arif Majeed, an alleged ISIS ‘recruit’ hailing from neighbouring Kalyan township, moved a local court accusing a jail officer of asking him to identify people from a bunch of photographs.
“The jail officer, under the law, cannot speak to an accused regarding a case,” said his lawyer Abdul Wahab Khan.
He said the jail officer gave Majeed 50 passport-size photographs and asked him if he knew any of the people.
The special judge for NIA cases Y D Shinde asked the jail authorities to file a reply to the allegation by January 28.
The court also extended Majeed’s judicial custody till then. According to the police, Majeed and three others, all engineering students, travelled to Baghdad on May 23, last year as a part of a group of 22 pilgrims.
However, according to other members of the group, Arif Majeed, Fahad, Aman and Shaheen Tanki left for the city of Fallujah after reaching the Iraqi capital. On August 26, Tanki called up Majeed’s family and told them that their son had been killed while fighting for ISIS in Syria.
But later Majeed’s father Ejaz Majeed reportedly met the NIA officers here and told them his son had fled from the ISIS-controlled areas to Turkey after fighting for the militant group for three months, and that he wanted to return to India.
He was detained and later arrested after his arrival in Mumbai on November 28. He is now facing a case under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and section 125 of IPC (waging war against any Asiatic country which has friendly ties with India).
The three others are still missing and wanted in the case.
