Kerala woman’s forced conversion: She was held captive in Saudi for 80 days, say cops

The woman was kept captive in an apartment in Jeddah and managed a miraculous escape after her family, settled in Gujarat, sent her an air ticket via mail.
Kerala woman’s forced conversion: She was held captive in Saudi for 80 days, say cops
Kerala woman’s forced conversion: She was held captive in Saudi for 80 days, say cops
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The 24-year-old woman from Kerala, who accused a Muslim man of forcible conversion to Islam, was under house arrest in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for more than 80 days, police officials have informed.

The revelations were made days after the officials arrested two persons from Ernakulam in connection with the case. 

Police had started investigating the case after the woman moved the HC alleging forcible conversion in November 2017.

In a petition filed by the woman, she had also alleged that Muhammad Riyas, the key accused in the case, had taken her to Saudi Arabia and had plans to take her to Syria thereafter, to be sold as a sex slave to ISIS. She had also alleged that Riyas forced her to have sexual intercourse with him.

Police said that the woman was kept captive in an apartment after Riyas threatened to release her nude videos to the public. 

The woman was also made to do data entry work in the apartment, police said, reports TOI.

The rural SP said, "Gruesome videos, including that of non-believers being stoned to death, were shown to her to instil hate towards other communities. The aim was to develop an affinity towards the activities of the terrorists. However, she refused to get brainwashed”, reports TOI.

Earlier, the woman had claimed that she managed to escape after she contacted her family settled in Gujarat. 

Police officials have now confirmed that the woman had taken her family pictures from the location where she was held captive and contacted her family. 

Her family and her neighbours helped the woman with the escape.  

Investigating officer DSP KB Prabhulla Chandran said, "It is very difficult but possible to travel to Syria from Saudi as Jeddah is only a few hours away. But they never travelled to the border. She grew suspicious of the fact that her husband was not making any effort to get her a permanent visa. She managed to contact her family after about 80 days just before her visiting visa expired," reports TOI.

"By looking at those pictures, her father's friend identified the location to be Jeddah. They emailed her an air-ticket and reached the airport after her neighbours helped her to get a taxi," added the report.

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