CHENNAI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed a charge sheet against two persons, including a Chennai resident, for suspected links with the Islamic State (IS). The charge sheet was filed before the NIA special court in Delhi on Saturday.
On July 12, Chennai based travel agent M Mohammed Musthaffa was arrested by the Delhi Special Cell police suspecting him to have prepared fake passports for IS suspects.
Musthaffa (26) who hails from Adirampattinam in Tanjore district, was running a travel agency ‘Well Go Travels Pvt Ltd’ in Mannady for the last four years.
He was arrested based on the confession by one Shahjahan Velluva Kandy (32), a resident of Kannur in Kerala, who was recently deported from Turkey for using a fake passport to enter the country.
A senior intelligence officer in Tamil Nadu, quoting Shahjahan said, he had approached Musthaffa for preparing a fake passport for `1.5 lakh. “The passport was made in a fake name and address - Mohammed Ismail Mohideen, resident of Chintadripet.
It was only after Shahjahan went to Syria from Delhi that the Delhi intelligence found he had travelled on a fake passport. They alerted immigration officials in Turkey, who deported Shahjahan to India,” said the officer.
Shahjahan was a Popular Front of India (PFI) leader. According to his interrogation report, in 2010, he became a member of two groups - Free Thinkers and Right Thinkers - on Facebook when he was in Saudi Arabia.
According to reports, in 2012, Shahjahan got married in India and later went to Saudi. In 2013, he joined the Bag manufacturing business in Chennai with his brothers. During his visits to his native village Koodali every month, he started meeting PFI members.
During one such meet, Shahjahan met one Sameer who motivated him for Hijra. According to reports, Shahjahan left for Syria in 2016 along with his family. He later revealed that many people like him were motivated by Sameer to move to Syria and help IS.