Bondi Beach Gunman Sajid Akram Performed Nikah With His Wife Venus

Hyderabad: People familiar with Bondi Beach gunman Sajid Akram disclosed that after marrying European national Venus Grosso in 1999 under Australian customary practice, Sajid and Venus travelled to Hyderabad in 2000, where they performed a second marriage (nikah) in the presence of Sajid’s parents.

Sajid’s son, Naveed Akram — currently being interrogated by Australian authorities — was born to the couple on August 12, 2001, in Australia.

Sajid and Naveed, then aged 15, reportedly visited their family home in Al‑Hasnath Colony, Towli Chowki, where they stayed for a few days, as well as their ancestral house in Doodh Bowli.

In March 2024, Sajid, as part of the Islamic mehar obligation, transferred his share of properties in Australia to Venus’s name.

Intelligence sources said Sajid had already begun gravitating towards extremist ideology by then and did not want Naveed to follow the same path — but Naveed insisted.

Naveed joined the Al‑Murad Institute in Sydney in 2019, where he learned Arabic. It is suspected that he was introduced to ISIS through associates at the institute. Both father and 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.

By Thursday, Australian state 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.

Australian investigators seized vehicles used by Sajid and Naveed, eight automatic firearms, ISIS 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.