NIA achieves over 92 pc conviction rate in 2025

A series of milestone achievements marked the year 2025 for the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which has maintained an impressive record of over 92 percent conviction rate while achieving major successes, including the extradition of 26/11 mastermind Tahawwur Rana as well as the arrest of several terrorists and their associates involved in the dastardly Pahalgam and the Delhi terror attacks. Tahawwur Rana was successfully extradited from the United States to India in April to face justice for plotting the horrific 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and other attacks across the country. The extradition marked a significant breakthrough in NIA’s investigation into the 26/11 terror attack conspiracy that left 166 people dead.

In another noteworthy achievement, NIA secured the deportation of gangster Anmol Bishnoi from the US. Brother and close aid of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Anmol had been absconding since 2022. The agency is making all out efforts to ensure speedy trial against him in a case relating to the conspiracy by criminal syndicates/gangs based in India and abroad, to carry out terrorist activities in Delhi and other parts of the country. ​With its chargesheet filed against seven accused, including the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its affiliate ‘The Resistance Front (TRF)’ as a terrorist organisation, the NIA wrapped up the year with a major success in its investigation into the deadly Pahalgam terrorist attack that had shocked the nation in April. Among those chargesheeted were the three terrorists who had carried out the religion based targeted killings and were subsequently killed by the security forces.

The NIA also made remarkable progress in its ongoing probe in the Delhi Red Fort area car blast case, in which as many as nine accused were arrested in less than two months of the terrorist attack that killed 11 persons and left several others injured. ​The year further saw the counter-terror agency make major strides in its action against Left Wing Extremism (LWE). The central government has set a goal to make India completely Naxal-free by 31st March 2026, and the NIA, along with state police forces and central armed police forces such as the CRPF, has been actively pursuing the Naxal cadres in the country. NIA took up a total of nine investigations against LWE members and top leaderships, and chargesheeted 34 of them, during the year.

The total arrests made by NIA across key categories of crimes in the 55 cases registered during the year stood at 276 (67 accused in Jihadi cases, 74 in LWE cases, 37 in NEI cases, 28 in Khalistan cases, 11 in Gangster cases and 59 accused in Other cases). The agency notched a record 66 convictions and chargesheeted 320 accused in 2025, which witnessed a slew of property and asset attachment actions as part of its crackdown against absconding terrorists, criminals and gangsters. A total of 12 properties/assets were attached during the year.

​Nationwide searches at the premises of accused and suspects in major terror and organised crime networks through the year saw a total of 200 accused arrested. These searches and arrests, which included clampdowns in cases related to designated Khalistani terrorists like Goldy Brar, were part of NIA’s concerted efforts to dismantle such networks. ​Major breakthroughs were made during 2025 in many cases relating to the targeted killings of Praveen Nettaru, Ramalingam, Kerala Professor TJ Joseph, Ratan Dubey, Sreenivasan, Suhas Shetty Dinesh Pusu Gawade and Priyangu Pandey. A series of convictions secured in the Pakistan-linked Vishakhapatnam Navy espionage case of 2019 added another feather to NIA’s cap. The NIA also arrested/chargesheeted several accused in various Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) cases across states.

(Freelance Journalist)