A 33-year-old man from Bhatkal in Karnataka, who was being monitored by Indian authorities for over a year for suspected online activities related to the Islamic State has been detained by the Dubai Police, The Indian Express reported.
Adnan Hasan Damudi allegedly worked as an online recruiter and propagandist for the IS. An alleged former member of SIMI, Damudi is an accountant by training who moved to Dubai in 2012 for work.
According to the report, he was last known to be employed at the World Trade Center in Dubai as an assistant delivery coordinator. Indian authorities are hoping that Damudi, who was detained a few months ago, will be deported to India soon and sources told IE that his present status is "not known".
The Indian Express report further adds, "Damudi’s alleged IS links reportedly came to the fore in the course of an investigation by the Telangana Police into an attempt last year to recruit four Hyderabad youths. Damudi is alleged to have influenced the four engineering college dropouts to travel to Syria as well as arranged funds for their travel, before the authorities were alerted and the youths detained near Malda in West Bengal and brought back to Hyderabad."
The Twitter handle @AdnanDamudi, which allegedly is linked to Damudi, is said to have been used to propagate the ideologies of IS. Both the Twitter account and his YouTube account have been defunct for more than a year now, adds the report.
As per the latest update, the Karnataka police are no longer actively seeking Damudi's deportation from Dubai.
“There seems to be no unlawful activities conducted by Damudi in Karnataka. But, if we do find any evidence, we will pursue the case. Until then, let the authorities in Dubai handle the case,” DGP told The Hindu on Sunday.