Who is Faiyaz Premjee, accused in the Mumbai muharram poisoning case? | Mumbai News

Premjee belongs to the Khoja Shia community, a small but historically influential Muslim trading community with roots in Gujarat and Kutch. In several interviews and online talks, he has said his family is originally from Gujarat before relocating to Pune, while at other times referring to Hyderabad as another place with which he has family connections. He has described his father as a businessman in Pune.

Premjee has repeatedly said that questioning religious orthodoxy shaped his early life. In one of his YouTube appearances, he said his habit of “questioning everything” was inherited from his maternal family and eventually led him to challenge long-held religious beliefs.

According to Premjee’s own account, he became involved with a small group of like-minded Khoja Shias in Mumbai around 2015-’16, advocating what he described as reforms within the community.

He has said the group argued for a more liberal interpretation of Islam and sought to challenge conservative religious practices.

“I tried to explain to people that the conservative version of Islam we were following was wrong. We believed we should become reformists. But our community was so conservative that they simply would not let go of that mindset,” he said in an interview.

People familiar with the turn of events say Premjee struggled to find support. “He was part of a small group of Khoja individuals in Mumbai who had several grievances against the community. He tried to mobilise people but found little support. Around that time, he had also become active on social media, posting videos critical of the community,” said a person who knew him during those years.

In subsequent interviews, Premjee claimed that his criticism of religious figures and institutions resulted in sustained harassment. He alleged that complaints were filed against him, his business in Pune was vandalised and he was socially ostracised.

By 2019, Premjee says he had abandoned Islam altogether and began describing himself as an atheist and an ex-Muslim. The same year, he says, he moved to Iran, believing the country was gradually embracing reform. According to his own account, that expectation was quickly shattered.

He has said he found Iran to be “exactly the same, perhaps even worse” than the religious conservatism he believed he had left behind in India. Over the next few years, he became a regular guest on right wing podcasts and YouTube channels, where he spoke extensively about Shia Islam, Iran and his departure from the faith.

In many of those appearances, Premjee said he was earning a living through stock market trading while living in Iran. It is not immediately clear when he returned to India. The alleged poisoning plot in Mumbai marked a dramatic escalation for a man whose public persona had largely been that of a combative online critic of his former faith. Mumbai Police are now trying to establish what prompted the alleged attack and whether Premjee acted alone or received any assistance in planning it.