NIA to probe Kerala woman's forced conversion

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case following a complaint by a woman from Kerala, who alleged that her husband tried to take her to Syria after converting to Islam.

The NIA registered the case on Sunday. The case, which was earlier handled by the police, will now be handled by the NIA.

The woman (25), a Pathanamthitta native, had approached the Kerala High Court last year seeking an NIA probe against her husband Mohammad Riyaz, a resident of Thalassery, for attempting to take her to Syria from Saudi Arabia. She said that her husband had plans to sell her to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists as a sex slave.

The woman claimed that she had met Riyaz while studying in Bengaluru in 2014 and alleged that her marriage was registered using forged documents. She added that she was allegedly blackmailed by him later. An investigation revealed that it was an organised network which executed the conversion of the woman. 

(With agency inputs)

• NIA
• Islamic State
• Conversion
• Kerala