Arshi Qureshi, who has been in jail since 2016 under draconian UAPA following allegations that he had radicalised youngsters to join the Islamic State (IS), was acquitted by a special NIA court on Friday.
52-year-old Qureshi was arrested in 2016 when he was working as the guest relations manager at the Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) founded by Islamic scholar Zakir Naik. The case against Qureshi was among the offences cited by the Union government while imposing a ban on IRF in 2016, according to Indian Express.
Qureshi was arrested along with two others, Mohammad Haneef, a preacher from Kerala, and Rizwan Khan who were accused of radicalising Ashfak Majeed, son of a businessman, and 21 other Muslim youths from Kerala to join IS.
NIA filed a 4,000-page charge sheet against Qureshi that alleged that he conducted the meetings to radicalise young people who left India to join IS at IRF’s Dongri centre.
“Nothing on record even to suggest that at any point of time arranged/encouraged/addressed any meeting for propagation of any unlawful activity or to support any cause or purpose of any banned organisation,” Qureshi’s lawyers T W Pathan, I A Khan and Faizan Qureshi had told the court during the final arguments.
“I am very happy, I just want to be back with my family now,” Qureshi who returned to India after studying hotel and business management in the US, said to the newspaper.
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