New Delhi: In a major breakthrough in the Bengaluru prisons terror conspiracy case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday successfully secured the extradition of a key Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) fugitive, Salman Khan, from Rwanda.
A spokesman of NIA said that
Part of a terror radicalization and recruitment case of Bengaluru Central Prison, Salman was taken into custody by the NIA, with the assistance of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB), Interpol and NCBs, on 27th November 2024, and brought to India this morning.
He is the 17th accused to be extradited/deported in major NIA cases since 2020. Marking similar success in global collaboration in criminal cases, the NIA had earlier managed to get Khalistani terrorists Tarsem Singh Sandhu and Bikramjit Singh extradited from UAE and Austria respectively.
Just last month, terrorist Baljeet Singh @ Baljeet was deported from UAE in a KTF terror conspiracy. Vikramjit Singh Brar, Manpreet Singh @ Peeta, Amritpal Singh @ Ammy, Amrik Singh, Mandeep Singh, Ratheesh, were other dreaded terrorists deported from UAE and the Philippines in 2023 in various terror related cases of the NIA.
Salman’s extradition followed a Red Notice by the Interpol after the NIA Special Court, Bengaluru, had issued a Non-Bailable Warrant of arrest against him. Based on the Red Notice, he was apprehended by authorities in Kigali, Rwanda, and NIA was informed about the arrest, eventually leading to Salman’s extradition and return to India, said the spokesman.
The proceedings emanated from the case RC-28/2023/NIA/DLI, which was registered by NIA on 25th October 2023 after taking over the investigation from the Bengaluru City Police. NIA investigations had revealed that Salman, previously imprisoned in a POCSO case (2018–2022), had facilitated the collection and distribution of explosives for other terror accused after being radicalized and recruited during his incarceration by T. Naseer, a life convict in a terror case.
Naseer had orchestrated the radicalization and subsequent criminal activities, including plans to facilitate his own escape enroute to the court from the prison and a conspiracy to further the operations of the proscribed terrorist organization LeT.
Salman had fled the country after the terror conspiracy/module was busted, and was declared a fugitive. He was subsequently chargesheeted by NIA under IPC, UA(P) Act, Arms Act, and Explosive Substances Act.
The NIA is continuing with its collaborative efforts to bring fugitives to justice, wherever they may be hiding, in all major terror and other criminal cases.
