Bhubaneswar: Sheikh Imran (22) of Bhubaneswar’s Ganga Nagar area, who was arrested by Delhi police on Saturday for his alleged links with a radical group, had reportedly undergone a short-term training in cyber tradecraft related to terrorism, sources in the state police said.According to the police sources, Imran was reportedly honey-trapped by a suspected Pakistani woman before being coerced into joining the group.“Through his social media accounts, he came in contact with a close group, where radical content on religious lines was circulated,” a written statement by the commissionerate police said.A senior officer in Odisha police said they have come to know that he visited Delhi several times over the past year to “meet the Pakistani woman and attended a week-long programme to learn specialised cyber techniques used in subversive activities”.The state Crime Branch’s special task force (STF), the nodal agency for organised crime and terror investigations, is analysing his online chats with the woman.“The honey-trap angle and cyber terrorism training are being verified,” STF SP Rabi Satapathy said, adding they are trying to find out whether others from Odisha were part of the radical group. Imran’s background is being thoroughly checked,” he said.The state police, in coordination with their Delhi counterparts, are probing Imran’s background, including his social media activity, financial transactions and call records.
Investigators said his name surfaced during interrogation of several youths detained in Delhi last week.Imran’s family expressed shock at the allegations. “My son was glued to his mobile phone for hours, but I never imagined he was involved in anti-national activities. I believe the mobile phone ruined him,” his father Sheikh Amir said.While police described Imran as unemployed, Amir claimed his son worked as a delivery agent for an online food aggregator. “He often asked me for money. I told him to find work, and he said he was doing food delivery, though I was never sure,” Amir said.
