The family of Chennai-based businessman Abdul Haye Mohammed Iliyas, who fell under the CIA scanner due to a mix-up of names, has woken up to a celebritydom it would rather have done without.Ever since he failed to turn up for a Paris-Los Angeles Air France flight on December 24, 2003, the 42-year-old garments and software solutions exporter had become the subject of intensive investigations by US and French intelligence services — for he had been mistaken for Abdul Hai, a top Al Qaeda leader, whom the CIA has been hunting for since 2002, say newspaper reports.When Iliyas didn’t show up for the flight, several transcontinental flights from Paris were cancelled fearing a 9/11 type attack, throwing Christmas holiday plans of several passengers in disarray. Eventually, however, Haye’s name was ‘‘cleared’’ after Indian intelligence agencies were roped into the investigation, reports said.Iliyas, who is in London now on a business trip, was not aware that the world’s top intelligence services were on his trail until newspaper reports on Tuesday mentioned him by name, his family members here told The Indian Express.Though they claim that Iliyas himself is ‘‘not perturbed’’ by the developments, they also seem concerned that his name should have been drawn into the issue through no fault of his.Iliyas and his family members — all of whom share the surname Abdul Haye — run a 40-year-old garments business in Periamet here, and have earned a reputation for themselves in the business. They also provide software solutions to business houses abroad, mostly in France and the US. Thus, all of them are frequent fliers. In none of their trips did the surnames seem to matter and never was any of them detained for questioning.Iliyas did not show up for his flight on December 24 because he had earned a free Air France ticket from Paris to Los Angeles on the basis of mileage points earned during his earlier trips. He had never intended to fly to the US on December 24, 2003, his family stressed. As the airliner had asked for a date for his Los Angeles journey, he gave December 24. Of course, he didn’t care to board the flight that day as he had never really meant to. However, a red alert was sounded and several flights were grounded. But subsequent investigations are believed to have revealed that Haye had nothing to do with any kind of extremist outfit.The Hayes are, of course, happy that Iliyas was in no way harassed by the US intelligence services or by their Indian counterparts. The entire investigation had apparently been carried on discreetly. However, they are still worried.At the receiving end of relentless media attention all through the day, the Hayes at first seemed reluctant to entertain any queries. When this reporter asked for Iliyas’s overseas contact number, all they said was: ‘‘Don’t let him be disturbed.’’Interestingly, none of the various intelligence agencies operating in Chennai would confirm whether they had carried out any background check on Iliyas.
