Against the backdrop of The Kerala Story movie, the story of Deepti Marla alias Maryam is being discussed again. In early 2022, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested five people from Bengaluru and Jammu and Kashmir in connection with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recruitment case in Kerala and Karnataka.
HinduPost reported that it was clear that the scheme’s mastermind was Mundadiguttu Sadananda Deepthi Marla alias, Maryam. She is accused of honey-trapping Hindus, converting them to Islam, and sending them to join Islamist terrorist organizations.
She is the daughter-in-law of former Congress MLA Idinabba’s son B M Basha. Late Idinabba was a three-time Congress MLA of the Ullal constituency in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district. He was a prominent Kannada poet, journalist, freedom fighter, and activist seeking a merger of Kerala’s Kasargod district with Karnataka.
In 2022, an NIA team from Delhi conducted a surprise raid on Basha’s Ullal residence and questioned Maryam. We reported how the team, headed by Assistant Investigating Officer, DSP Krishnakumar, questioned her for three hours and then took her into custody. The ISIS terrorist recruiter was subjected to medical tests and taken to Delhi.
The NIA har raided late Idinabba’s residence in the first week of August 2021. During investigations, the role of Maryam and her husband, Rahman, came under the scanner. After two days of inquiry, the investigators arrested Ammar, cousin of Anas Abdul Rahman, for his alleged ISIS links.
The team questioned Maryam for two days but did not take her into custody. However, her movements were closely watched, and she was arrested in January 2022.
How Deepthi Became Maryam
Deepthi, a native of Kodagu, Karnataka, was born into a Hindu family. In 2015, she went to Dubai as part of her studies. Here, she met Misa Siddique, who was part of a radical Islamist conversion mafia. Siddique and her cronies instilled Islamic thoughts in Deepthi.
Later, Anas Abdul Rahman, the grandson of former Congress MLA Idinabba, groomed Deepthi. This happened while she was studying for BDS at Deralakatte, Mangaluru. This was when Deepthi changed her religion to Islam, accepted the name Maryam, and married Rahman.
HinduPost has reported how higher education institutes in the region are fertile Islamist conversion hubs. This is where young educated girls from all over south Bharat are groomed and converted. Vile jihad matchmakers like Noor Jahan ply their grooming jihad here. Radical Islamist organizations like the Women India Movement (WIM) then justify Islamist atrocities against Hindus.
Converted Maryam, then traveled to Tehran in Iran. From here, she tried to establish contacts with ISIS terrorists centered in Khorasan province. Islamic State – Khorasan Province or ISKP is associated with ISIS and is centered in the terror-infested regions of Afghanistan.
Islamic State – Khorasan Province
The ISKP is a transnational Salafi-Jihadist and UN-designated terrorist organization with operational ties with several local groups. ISKP had a strong presence in eastern Afghanistan (Nangarhar and Kunar provinces), as well as in Kabul and northern Afghanistan. The group has currently gone underground.
ISKP carries out terrorist attacks in Kabul and other major cities. It claimed the attacks on the Kabul international airport in August 2021, which killed more than 170 and injured 200 others. Other examples include several roadside bomb attacks targeting the Taliban, resulting in civilian casualties, car bomb explosions in Kabul, and an attack on a military health facility in the same city.
In October 2021, at least 72 people were reportedly killed and 143 wounded after an ISKP suicide bomber attacked a mosque in Kunduz used by Shia Muslim (Hazara) minority. That same month, during Friday prayers, ISKP suicide bombers attacked a mosque in Kandahar, also used by the Hazara, killing 47 people and wounding at least 70.
Even though the ISKP claims to be an offshoot of ISIS, and while they both wish to create an Islamic world, their aims and vision are quite different. “The ISKP is looking towards Bharat. Their map of Khorasan includes large parts of north Bharat where the Mughals ruled, and they do not include most of southern Bharat,” said Dr. Amin Tarzi, director of Middle Eastern Studies at Marine Corps University.
ISKP allied with disgruntled jihadists in Pakistan and worked against Bharat. These ISKP Pakistani jihadi groups wanted to include Kashmir in their area of operations and occupy the region. They are not interested in the Arab world issues but instead, look east. This made ISKP far more dangerous from Bharat’s point of view.
Fortunately for Bharat, Maryam’s mission to join the ISKP failed. She and Siddique returned to Bharat and made contact with ISIS recruiters in our county. Later, they allegedly contacted a few terrorist elements in Jammu and Kashmir during a visit in August 2020. Their aim was pure and simple. Recruit innocent Hindus and create suicide bombers from Bharat.
Deceit & ISIS Recruitment
On the instructions of Maryam’s terror handlers, around 15 profiles were created on social media using Hindu and Muslim names. She used to handle the Instagram Page Chronicle Foundation for ISIS at the instigation of her husband. They started covertly luring the youth. Ten from Karnataka and five from Kerala fell into Maryam’s honey trap.
After grooming young men, Maryam and her jihadis engaged in video calls and sex chats with them. They would also promise to marry the unsuspecting victims to cement the relationship. Once convinced that the victims were entrapped, the young men were forced to convert to Islam and join ISIS.
Maryam spent 10 lakh rupees to tempt one Madesh Perumal alias Abdul. Abdul, who was arrested in Bengaluru five months before her arrest, had also fallen into Maryam’s trap and converted to Islam. He had reportedly promised his ISIS handlers to carry out bombings in the country.
Maryam was arrested in a sedition case on 3 January 2022. On 6 January, her parents advertised in newspapers that she was not their daughter anymore and distanced themselves from the terrorist. They added that she, her husband, and her children do not have any rights on her parent’s property.
Maryam is accused of recruiting young people for armed jihad, raising funds for ISIS, and planning the targeted killing of leaders and media workers. Those who criticize The Kerala Story as propaganda should remember that a nation that forgets its past has no future.
