Mumbai, A special NIA court here on Saturday sentenced an anaesthesiologist to six years of rigorous imprisonment after he pleaded guilty in a 2023 Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terror conspiracy case.
Sarkar and the other accused had been arrested in connection with an ISIS module bust. They were accused of actively supporting the proscribed terrorist organisation.
Special NIA Judge Abhay A Joglekar convicted him under the Unlawful Activities Act, or UA, and the Indian Penal Code for criminal conspiracy and disappearance of evidence.
The accused, Adnanali Sarkar, had told the court that he was “repenting his wrong deeds” and pleading guilty for his own future and his family. Accepting Sarkar’s guilty plea, the judge said that while it was his first offence, the charges against him were serious. “This court requires that there should be a deterrent qua a message to the society, wherein such act should not crop up within society in any form, more especially when it concerns the national security being put at stake by such elements,” the judge said.
When the court framed charges in the case on June 25 this year, Sarkar had pleaded not guilty. However, on October 28, he moved an application before the court expressing his willingness to plead guilty and seeking the minimum punishment permissible under the law on humanitarian grounds.
