After being tipped off by America’s Central Intelligence agency (CIA) last week that ISIS operative Shahjahan Velluva Kandy would be returning to India after staying in Syria and Turkey, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested him at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), police said on Tuesday.
A resident of Kannur in Kerala, 32-year-old Shahjahan — deported by the Turkey Police for travelling on fake passports — is being interrogated by the Delhi Police about his terror activities in Syria, said an official privy to the probe.
Shahjahan told police about his links with some of the ISIS terrorists who were arrested in Kerala in October last year. Also, police came to know that Shahjahan was in touch with several ISIS sympathisers in India and Syria through the Telegram Application as hundreds of Telegram IDs of ISIS sympathisers were found in his mobile.
Voluminous data recovered from the mobile, memory and SIM cards of the accused are being analysed. Besides, the Anti-Terror Unit is in search of people who helped Shahjahan get fake passports and a team is in Tamil Nadu in search of the agent.
A senior police official told The Pioneer that on sustained interrogation, Shahjahan disclosed that this was his second attempt to sneak into Syria via Turkey’s porous border to participate in terror activities.
“The accused revealed that he went to Turkey from Chennai in February on a fake passport and was deported back after which he made another fake passport in the name of Mohammed Ismail Mohideen from Chennai with the help of an agent and attempted to go to Syria last week but he was caught by the Turkish Police and deported back to India,” said the police official.
Shahjahan was already on the CIA radar and the US agency had informed India about his arrival at the IGI airport gate number 6 around 4.30 am a week ago. Following which police arrested him on arrival.
“His travel documents were checked and he was found carrying an emergency certificate in the name of Mohammed Ismail Mohideen issued by Assistant Consular Consulate General of India in Turkey. During enquiry his actual identity was revealed as Shahjahan Velluva Kandy and a case was registered under sections of cheating, forgery, impersonation and Passport Act,” said the police official.