Islamic State operative Khaja Moideen brought to Chennai from Tihar jail

Khaja Moideen, the suspected ISIS operative arrested in the murder of Hindu Munnani leader K P S Suresh Kumar and later nabbed by the NIA for conspiring to set up sleeper cells in Nepal and India, was on Tuesday brought to the city from Tihar jail in Delhi.

He was produced before a special court for NIA cases in Poonamallee and charged with radicalising Abdul Shameem and Thoufique, arrested for gunning down special sub-inspector S Wilson in Kanyakumari district on January 8, 2020. Moideen, the mastermind in Wilson’s murder, was later sent to Poonamallee sub-jail. Special public prosecutor C S S Pillai said, “Now, we can conduct the trial in the SSI murder.”

Born in 1968 at Ilayangudi in Sivaganga district, he later migrated to Kollumedu in Kattumannarkoil near Cuddalore and studied up to Class X. Associated with the CPM before joining the Manitha Neethi Pasarai as district organiser in Cuddalore in 1993-94.

Since then, he kept a low profile in public, running an iron scrap in Cuddalore, while continuing to be in touch with radical elements, investigators said. He started a travel service for Haj and Umrah pilgrims while raising crops on his family land near Cuddalore.

Moideen was arrested in 2004 for organising training camps at Nellikuppam for converting people to Islam, but came out on bail later.

He was again arrested in 2014 for the murder of Suresh Kumar at Ambattur. The NIA booked him in another case after Cuddalore native Khaja Fakruddin, sent back to India after he tried to join the ISIS in Syria, said Moideen had helped arrange his flight tickets.

Shakul Hameed, an MBA dropout who was stopped from going to Syria to join the ISIS, also told police Moideen had helped him get travel documents. Investigators said Moideen is accused of radicalising young men in places like Madurai and Bengaluru.

Source: Times Of India