French team in Kerala to grill IS suspect in 2015 Paris blasts case

December 05, 2018 19:43

A five-member team from a French investigation agency on Wednesday reached Kochi to interrogate an alleged Islamic State terror operative in connection with the 2015 Paris blasts, and held discussions with the National Investigation Agency, which will facilitate the three-day questioning session at a jail in Kerala.

The team from the French anti-terror agency will be in Kerala till Friday to interrogate Subahani Haja Moideen, aresident of Thodupuzha, at the Central jail in Thrissur district.

"The five-member team from a French anti-terror investigation agency met us at Kochi today," a top NIA official told PTI here.

He said the team arrived in the country after an NIA court in Kochi granted them permission to interrogate Subahani, currently lodged in Viyyur Central jail.

"They (the French team) will visit Thrissur and meet the accused Subahani at Viyyur Central Prison, as permitted by the court, from December 5 to 7," the official said.

The NIA probe revealed that Subahani knew the terrorists who carried out the attack inside a theatre in Paris in 2015, killing over 100 people, but has feigned ignorance about the plot.

He was arrested from Tamil Nadu in 2016 in a crackdown by the NIA with the help of central security agencies and other state police, foiling designs of ISIS operatives to targetsome judges of Kerala and foreign tourists visiting the coastal state.

Subahani, picked up from Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, wasradicalised and recruited in ISIS through social mediaplatforms. He left India for Istanbul from Chennai in April2015 on the pretext of performing Umrah--Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.

After reaching Istanbul, he had crossed over with other people from Pakistan and Afghanistan to Iraqi territory under control of ISIS, officials said. -- PTI

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