Bondi Beach shooter's family in India cut ties with him cause he married a Christian, Venera Grosso
Telangana Police said Sajid Akram migrated to Australia in November 1998 after completing his B.Com degree in Hyderabad and later married Verena Grosso.
The Hyderabad-based family of Sajid Akram, one of the two gunmen involved in the deadly shooting at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, had severed ties with him years ago after he married Venera Grosso, a Christian woman of European origin, police and media reports said on Tuesday.
Telangana Police said Sajid Akram migrated to Australia in November 1998 after completing his B.Com degree in Hyderabad and later married Verena Grosso.
Following the marriage, contact between Sajid and his family in India diminished sharply. Relatives told the police that they had limited interaction with him over the past 27 years.
A report by The News Minute quoted Sajid Akram’s brother, who lives in Hyderabad, as saying that the family cut ties with Sajid after his marriage.
The brother, who was not named in the report, said Sajid had left Hyderabad more than 25 years ago and the family had not been in touch with him for many years.
"…Sajid had left Hyderabad for Australia more than 25 years ago and later married a Christian, after which the family cut ties with him,"the brother told The News Minute.
Police said Sajid visited India only six times after migrating to Australia, mainly for property-related matters and to meet elderly parents.
He did not return to India even after his father’s death, further highlighting the estrangement, Telangana Police said.
“The family members have expressed no knowledge of his radical mindset or activities, nor of the circumstances that led to his radicalisation,” the Telangana Police statement said, adding that there was no adverse record against Sajid Akram before he left India in 1998.
Police also stressed that the factors leading to his and his son’s radicalisation “appear to have no connection with India or any local influence in Telangana”.
