The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday filed a supplementary chargesheet before a special court in Lucknow against an alleged member of the al-Qaeda terror outfit.

The chargesheet against Tawheed Ahmad Shah, a resident of Aribagh-Machowa area of central Kashmir's Budgam district, was filed before the NIA special court in Lucknow in a case related to the attempts by the global terror organisation to recruit members for the Al-Qaeda in Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), an official said.

Earlier on January 5 this year, the NIA had arrested and charge-sheeted five accused persons in the case which was initially registered on January 10 this year at the Anti-terrorist Squad Gomti Nagar police station. The case was reregistered by the federal agency on July 29.

An NIA spokesperson said the case was registered on inputs that Umar Halmandi, an al-Qaeda member based on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was radicalising and recruiting personnel for the AQIS.

“He was accused of raising an al-Qaeda module and Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind (AGH), an extended outfit of proscribed terrorist outfit, in Lucknow to carry out terrorist acts,” the NIA said.

The spokesperson said investigations have revealed that Shah, who was chargesheeted under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, instigated accused Minhaj Ahmad, one of the five chargesheeted persons in the case - to join the al-Qaeda and instructed him to recruit as many members for AGH for commission of terrorist acts.

The official said Shah was working as an overground worker for accused slain terrorists - Adil Nabi Teli of Lashkar-e-Taiba and The Resistance Front (TRF) and Syed Basharat of AGH -- and received money from Minhaj and funded Teli and Basharat.