NIA lodges FIR against 9 in forced conversion case

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency has lodged an FIR in case of alleged forcible conversion. The case has been registered against nine persons from Kerala and Bengaluru who were apparently involved in forcible conversion of a woman from Gujarat and then sending her to ISIS operatives in Saudi Arabia.

The case was lodged following a complaint from the 25-year-old victim who claimed that one Muhammed Riyas Rasheed had taken her objectionable pictures after luring her and even kept her in illegal confinement. The complainant also alleged that Rasheed cheated her into marriage by forging some documents and even forced her to convert to Islam. NIA officials claimed that Rasheed had kept the woman in illegal confinement in Kerala and even took her to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in August last year for joining terror outfit, ISIS.

In addition to Rasheed,  others named in the FIR by NIA are Nahas Abdulkhader from Kannur, Muhammed Nazish T.K. of Perigadi, Abdul Muhasin K also from Kannur, Danish Najeeb, Fawas Jamal, Moin Patel and Iliyas Mohammed, all of whom are from Bengaluru.

Initially, the case was registered in Ernakulam, Kerala, on charges of rape, extortion, forgery, criminal conspiracy along with and pursuant unlawful activities prejudicial to the maintenance of communal harmony along with forceful religious conversion.

The complainant, whose statement is main grounds for filing the FIR, alleged that the accused persons forced her to become a follower of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik, who is absconding ever since his name came up during investigations into a case of terror attack at a café in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Incidentally, the NIA has also filed a chargesheet against Naik in a terror related case.