MUMBAI: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Thursday framed charges against all six accused in the 2023 Maharashtra ISIS module case, setting the stage for the commencement of the trial after rejecting a last-minute attempt by one of the accused to defer the proceedings.NIA court frames charges against six accused of setting up ISIS module in ThaneSpecial judge Chakor S Baviskar framed charges against Tabish Nasser Siddiqui, Zulfikar Ali Barodawala, Zubair Noor Mohammad Shaikh, Sharjeel Shaikh, Adnanali Sarkar and Aakif Ateeque Nachan on charges of criminal conspiracy and offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The charges were read to the accused, who pleaded not guilty.The case stemmed from the NIA’s June 2023 investigation on receiving intelligence inputs that the accused had formed an ISIS module in Thane district’s Padgha where they radicalised vulnerable Muslim youth, swore allegiance to ISIS, organised clandestine meetings and physical training sessions, identified hideouts, carried out reconnaissance of sensitive locations and made preparations for terrorist activities in India. Nachan allegedly handled the module’s activities.On Monday, the same court had rejected Barodawala’s discharge application, holding that the prosecution had placed sufficient material on record to warrant a trial. On Thursday, counsel for Sharjeel Shaikh orally sought a deferment, submitting that he had recently received instructions to file a discharge application and requesting time until his colleague returned with the papers.Rejecting the request, the court observed, “Apparently, this is killing time to protract framing of the charge and to protract the trial and create false grounds of long incarceration.” The judge added that if the intention had been bona fide, the accused “could and should have moved the discharge application much earlier and not at this moment when the court is about to explain the contents of the charges and frame the same today”.After the charges had already been framed and the accused had pleaded not guilty, the defence filed another application seeking a 10-minute deferment, which the court held had become infructuous. Subsequently, a discharge application tendered on behalf of Shaikh was also filed as “redundant and infructuous”, with the court holding that the stage of framing of charges had already concluded.