Sajid Akram Performed Nikah With His Wife Venus in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Bondi Beach gunman Sajid Akram performed his nikah with Verena Grosso, an Australian woman with Italian origins, in Hyderabad in 2000 in the presence of his parents, though he had married her a year before — in 1999 — under Australian customary practice.Their son, Naveed Akram, currently being interrogated by Australian authorities, was born to the couple on August 12, 2001, in Australia. Director General of Police (DGP) B Shivadhar Reddy on Friday said that Sajid Akram, who left Australia 27 years ago, had visited Hyderabad six times in 27 years.”In 1998, Sajid Akram left for Australia in search of job opportunities. It was revealed that Sajid Akram visited the city for the first time in October 2000. He visited the city along with his European wife and met his family members,” the DGP said.In February 2009 and July 2012, Sajid Akram came to Hyderabad months after his father’s death. He visited Hyderabad once again in March 2016, along with his 15-year-old son Naveen, for the property settlement.They reportedly visited their family home in Al‑Hasnath Colony, Tolichowki, in 2016, where they stayed for a few days, as well as their ancestral house in Doodhbowli.He last visited Hyderabad in 2022 to settle his family properties after his father’s demise in the city. After they noticed the Australia shooting incident in which one of the terror suspects had links to Hyderabad, the police obtained data about Sajid Akram based on his passport.When Sajid was in the city, he had no links to terror outfits, and he was not radicalised towards terror groups.As part of the Islamic mehr obligation, Sajid transferred his share of their residence at Bonnyrigg, New South Wales, Australia, to Verena’s name in March 2024. Intelligence sources said that though Sajid had already begun gravitating towards extremist ideology, he did not want Naveed to follow his path, but his son insisted on joining him.Naveed joined the Al‑Murad Institute in Sydney in 2019 to learn Arabic. It is suspected that he was introduced to the Islamic State through associates at the institute. Both the father and the son are believed to have undergone training at an ISIS camp on Mindanao Island in the Philippines.Australian investigative agencies, who had been monitoring Naveed’s social‑media activity, reportedly gathered strong evidence that Sajid and Naveed attended the Mindanao training camp for several months.On Thursday, Australian intelligence agencies reported that they had collected concrete evidence against Naveed, who had travelled nearly 20 km on the day of the shootout before reaching the beach. The investigators seized vehicles used by Sajid and Naveed, eight automatic firearms, Islamic State flags, satellite images, route maps, Arabic literature, blueprints, mobile SIM cards and other terror‑related material from one of Sajid’s cars, local intelligence sources said.



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