"Preparation is an offence under UAPA," SC denies bail to ISIS links terrorist Syed Mamoor Ali

The Supreme Court today has denied bail to terrorist Syed Mamoor Ali, accused of conspiring to promote ISIS ideology and carry out terror activities.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta noted that inflammatory material was recovered from Ali and dismissed his SLP challenging the Madhya Pradesh high Court order.

Senior Advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for Ali told the court that only material recovered from his client was Islamic literature. The bench, however, noted that the case involved allegations of forming a WhatsApp group similar to that of ISIS.

Court while denying bail observed that it was the "best morning to send a message", referring to the incident of blasts that occurred in Delhi yesterday near the Red Fort.

A case was registered by NIA against Ali and other for commission of offence punishable under under Sections 120-B, 295-A of the IPC and Sections 16, 17, 18, 18(B), 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.

NIA took up the investigation wherein it was revealed that during nationwide lockdown in the year 2020, the accused persons started gaining knowledge about comparison of religion through watching the videos of Zakir Naik, an Islamic Preacher, reading Quran and Hadeeth.

The accused also prepared the pamphlets similar to the flags of ISIS and Al Qaeda. They affixed one of the samples of pamphlets on the wall of nearby Ahle Hadees mosque in order to attract likeminded people, whom they could influence towards ideology of ISIS. 

High Court also found that Ali and other co-accused persons had conspired to attack Ordnance Factory, Jabalpur, to procure the weapons in large quantity in furtherance of their terror activity. They also decided to blast the Jabalpur Ordnance Factory, if they could not succeed in capturing the Factory.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court in its judgment had further noted that NIA had gotten analysed Ali's phone wherein they found one magazine/literature namely "Voice of Khurasan" which contains motivational articles for Jihad, martyrdom, propagating ideology of ISIS etc.  "Another literature related to Dawah to Hindus was also found in the mobile of present appellant. Apart from these, images relating to modified flags of ISIS, photos of Anwar Al Awlaki, Abu Duzana were also recovered from his mobile phone. He used an application namely "Sherddit" to delete the data from his phone regularly. Digital analysis further revealed that present appellant and co-accused Mohd. Adil Khan were discussing about collection of funds for their Tanzeem, suicide bombing, martyrdom, Istishhadi etc...", the court had noted.

It was found that there was specific material to show that Ali advocated, abetted, or incited commission of many unlawful activities. 

When the High Court was told that Ali being physically handicapped was unable to carry out such a dangerous act, it had noted, "We would say that the terrorism based upon religion arises from hateful thoughts towards the other religions which comes from mind and is spread by mind; the need of other physical assistance is secondary. This Court cannot express undue leniency to a person who is facing serious charge of terrorism and unlawful activities.".

Case Title: Syed Mamoor Ali vs Union of India

Bench: Justices Nath and Mehta

Hearing Date: November 11, 2025