NEW DELHI:

,

, was allegedly in touch with two key chargesheeted accused in ISIS (

) Omar-al-Hindi case, Manseed and P Safvan, via a closed Facebook group comprising activists of Popular Front of India (PFI)'s political arm SDPI as well as a popular messaging application, during the months preceding his marriage to Hadiya, an NIA probe has found.

Both Manseed and Safvan, arrested in October last year, have been chargesheeted by NIA in the Omar-al-Hindi case. The case relates to criminal conspiracy by members of an Islamic State-inspired group to target high court judges, senior police officers and political leaders as well as places of public importance in south India.

The NIA believes it was Manseed and his SDPI associates including Muneer, a friend of Shafin Jahan, and not the matrimonial website 'waytonikah.com', that brought Hadiya and Shafin together so as to 'arrange' their alliance. The two got married in December 2016.

The Kerala High Court had in May this year annulled Shafin and Hadiya's marriage.

Shafin Jahan's appeal against the annulment.

Muneer, according to NIA sources, was known to Sainaba, Hadiya's court-appointed guardian at the time of her marriage, through the PFI/SDPI network.

NIA probe has reportedly found that both Manseed and Safvan were in contact with Shafin, "an active worker of SDPI and a district committee member of SDPI's student wing Campus Front during his college days" on a messaging/social media app as well as closed Facebook group of SDPI activists called 'Thanal'. Both Manseed and Shafin were not only members of Facebook group 'SDPI Keralam' but also part of its administrative panel.

Incidentally, Shafin Jahan was associated with 'Access', a career guidance group based at Kozhikode, as a mentor, while Sainaba was with the same group as a counsellor. Muneer too shared this association with 'Access'.

The Kerala police probe into the '

' case had earlier found that Manseed and Shafin knew each other, although they had never met. Manseed had purchased a book named 'Yadhartha Matham' (The Real Religion) published from Qatar (where Manseed was based at the time) and sent it to Shafin Jahan on his request.

NIA probe has found contradictions in Hadiya and Shafin Jahan's claims before the Kerala High Court that their marriage was arranged through matrimonial website 'waytonikah.com'. According to sources, Shafin had registered his name on the website on September 19, 2015, while Sainaba registered the name of Hadiya and her own daughter, Fathima Thesni, on April 17, 2016. As both Shafin and Hadiya had not paid the website, only their basic details could be viewed publicly. Their contact details had to be collected by interested parties through the website.

Hadiya viewed 49 profiles between April 17 and April 23, but not of Shafin. Similarly, Shafin viewed 67 profiles but not of Hadiya. In fact, they did not visit or view each other profiles till December 31, 2016, by when they were already married. None of the five persons who collected Hadiya's details from the website were found connected to Shafin Jahan. As per NIA's report in the 'love jihad' case, marriage proposal of Shafin Jahan had come through Muneer during August 2016. "During this time, Shafin was in touch with Manseed and Safvan, with Muneer acting as a go-between," said an NIA officer.