Delhi High Court notice to NIA on plea by ISIS suspect to be tried as juvenile

The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued notice to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on a petition filed by suspected ISIS terrorist Abdul Qadeer, who argued that he was a minor when he allegedly joined the terror outfit and his case should, therefore, be dealt with by the Juvenile Justice Board (Abdul Qadeer (in JC) v National Investigation Agency)..The notice was issued by a Bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani which has asked the NIA to file its response by February 2 when the case will next be heard..In his petition, filed through advocate Mohammed Mobin Akhtar, Qadeer argued that he was a minor when he allegedly joined the ISIS, as claimed by the NIA and should, therefore, be tried as juvenile.During the course of the hearing, Akhtar argued that he had ordered some materials from Amazon as part of his school chemistry-project which were seized by the NIA and shown as being explosives.“The FSL report also said that these materials could have been used as explosives. By that logic even Amazon should be charged,” Akhtar submitted in the Court.“I have been charged with conspiracy which is a continuing offence and even though it does not have an end but it does have a beginning. You have to give a date on which offence was committed and according to the date given by the agency I was a minor therefore I am entitled to be tried by a Juvenile Justice Board,” he told the Court..The Bench, however, said that it does not agree with the ground taken by the petitioner since the offence is not when he joined the group but what he has done afterwards.“You cannot say conspiracy began and ended on the day I joined them. During the course of conspiracy, you do something that is an offence you can be punished for it. According to us your arguments do not have legs to stand on,” Justice Mridul remarked..A resident of Hyderabad, Qadeer had been arrested by the NIA in August 2018 after a week-long questioning. He was 19 years old at the time. The Agency alleged that Qadeer had been in touch with Adnan Hassan, who was was arrested in the 2016 ISIS Abu Dhabi module case for recruiting Indians to carry out activities for the terror outfit. The NIA had argued that Qadeer was tasked with spreading ISIS propaganda.