Kerala conversion case: NIA gets custody of Muhammed Riyas

Kochi: A special court in Kochi on Monday accepted the plea of National Investigation Agency and allotted custody of Muhammed Riyas, the main accused in the forcible conversion case, for five days. Earlier the NIA Kochi unit cited that the accused needed to be taken to various places including Bengaluru for evidence collection while seeking his custody.

As per the case, the 25-year-old victim, a native of Ranni in Pathanamthitta and brought up in Gujarat, met Riyas, a native of North Paravur while studying at Bengaluru. The latter allegedly forced her to have sex with him and filmed it secretly. He then began to threaten her and forced to marry him. Later he took her to Saudi Arabia and allegedly attempted to take her to Syria to sell her to Islamic State terrorists as sex slave.

Riyas, who was absconding for the last over a year, was finally taken into custody by an NIA team from Chennai airport on February 2 when he arrived from Jeddah via Colombo. The case was earlier probed by Kerala police who arrested two persons for assisting Riyas. It was later handed over to NIA following a court direction.