The National Investigation Agency arrested a madrasa teacher from Murshidabad’s Raninagar late on Sunday in connection with its probe into alleged al Qaida operatives in Bengal and Kerala.

Abdul Momin Mondal, 32, was arrested after the agency found his involvement in a series of “conspiratorial meetings” convened by the members of the banned terror outfit.

Momin, according to sources, used to work as a teacher in Raipur Darul Huda Islamia Madrasa in Murshidabad and officers have been tracking him for sometime following leads provided by the six, who had been arrested on September 18 from the bordering district of Bengal.

He was produced in a district court in Murshidabad on Monday and granted transit remand so that he could be taken to New Delhi for further interrogation.

Son of Rejual Mondal, a farmer at Nazrana village of Raninagar in Murshidabad, Momin was allegedly a part of the group from Murshidabad that created a Whatsapp group where they would exchange messages that allegedly referred to Ghaza-e-Hind, referring to ultimate conquest of India, said a source.

Senior officials in the central intelligence agencies said Ghaza-e-Hind was an idea that was floated by Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, a separatist organisation and an al Qaida cell active in Jammu and Kashmir. The police in Jammu and Kashmir claimed that in October 2019, the group was completely “neutralised”.

Officials said they had recovered several “digital devices” from Momin's house during the raid preceding the arrest. It was still not clear how Momin was involved in raising funds for the banned terror outfit but officials claimed that the money was to be used for carrying out attacks at multiple places across India, including the National Capital Region.

“Momin shared a thick friendship with Abu Sufiyan, a tailor at Raninagar market in Murshidabad,” said the official.

Sufiyan was among the six arrested from Bengal including Najmus Sakib, an engineering student and Atitur Rehman, a first-year student of arts at college in Nadia's Karimpur, from Murshidabad in September.

Mosaraf Hossan arrested from Ernakulam is Atitur's elder brother. He had settled in the Kerala town