4 min readJun 29, 2026 11:58 AM IST
First published on: Jun 29, 2026 at 09:08 AM IST
On Ashura, when thousands of mourners gathered on the streets of South Mumbai to observe Muharram on Friday, a 39-year-old businessman from Pune moved through the crowds, distributing what he claimed were pain relief capsules. Police say the capsules were laced with zinc phosphide, a highly toxic rodenticide. Investigators allege he had prepared nearly 14,000 such capsules with the intention of distributing them among members of the Shia community.
The man now accused of plotting the mass poisoning is Faiyaz Premji, whose journey over the past decade traces an increasingly confrontational path from a self-described reformist within the Khoja Shia community to an outspoken ex-Muslim who built an online presence around criticising Shia Islam.
Premji 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.
Premji 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 Premji’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 Premji 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, Premji 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, Premji 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, Premji 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.
According to the Mumbai police, Faiyaz Premji is a BBA graduate. His father owns a paint company in Pune. and his mother and sister are in Iran. 
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