Kochi: Another case of forced religious conversion of a 24-year-old woman surfaced in Kerala’s north Paravur near Kochi. The woman alleged that there was a plan to sell her as a sex slave to the Islamic States (IS) that has a prominent presence in Syria.
The Superintendent of Police of Ernakulam (rural) AV George said that two persons – Fawaz Jamal and Mohamed Siyad – were charged under several sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), as reported by the Hindustan Times.
The woman’s husband Mohamed Riyaz, 26, hailing from North Kerala, was conspiring to sell her off to IS in Syria, she alleged.
Kerala has been under the scanner of investigative agencies of India over people joining ‘jihad’ that is executed by fundamentalist radicals in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The woman, in her complaint, said that before she was taken to Saudi Arabia, she was tortured and taken to religious center by the two accused at the behest of her husband.
A case was registered by the Kerala police in December and the international criminal police organisation Interpol has been contacted to deport woman’s husband, who is believed to be in Jeddah.
The SP said they are examining whether the two arrested have any connection to the IS, reports HT.
She also told the police that she was also locked in a room in Saudi Arabia but somehow she managed to get hold of a mobile phone and called her parents in Kerala. With the help of some NRIs, she was rescued from Saudi Arabia in October and was flown back to India.
The woman, who belonged to central Kerala, met Riyaz in Bengaluru in 2015 where she was studying.
During their relationship, both developed a physical intimacy and she alleged that Riyaz took videos of their intimate moments without her knowing about it and later indulged in blackmailing her with it.
She alleged that she was forcefully admitted in a madrasa and was made to learn tenets in Islam.
In May 2016, she was married to Riyaz but she later escaped and filed a habeas corpus in the court alleging that she illegally restricted by her parents.
Again, submitting to the threats and pressure from all sides, she returned with her husband. For some time, Riyaz treated her properly and took her to Saudi Arabia on a tourist visa in August 2017 where he kept her locked in a room from where she was rescued.
She came to know about the selling her to IS plan after she overheard her husband talking to the others.
A complaint was filed by her in the Kerala High Court to annul her marriage with Riyaz.
Another petition has been moved by her in the high court seeking NIA probe and she said that the police is not interested in probing the case.
Source: Times Now
