The Kerala Police on Wednesday arrested two men in North Paravur in connection with a case involving the alleged forced religious conversion of a 24-year-old woman. The complainant accused the two of torturing her at a religious centre in Kerala on the orders of her husband, Mohammed Riyaz. The accused planned on selling her as a sex slave to radical Islamists in Syria, she alleged.

The two men have been identified as Fawaz Jamal and Mohamed Siyad, Ernakulam (rural) Superintendent of Police AV George told the Hindustan Times.

The case

The woman had filed a complaint with the court against her husband in November 2017, News18 reported.

The complainant said she had first met her husband in Bengaluru in 2015. She accused him of blackmailing her with videos he had taken of her when they were physically intimate. She alleged that she was forced to convert to Islam and marry him. She managed to escape from her husband’s house, but he had filed a habeus corpus plea in the High Court claiming that her parents had illegally confined her at their home in Gujarat, she said.

He took her to Saudi Arabia, where she alleged she was locked in a room. She claimed to have escaped after seeking help from some non-resident Indians.

Kerala police are coordinating with the local authorities in Saudi Arabia and Interpol to ensure that her husband is deported to India. “We are examining whether the arrested have some connection with the Islamic State group,” George said.

The woman has filed for annulment of the marriage and has moved the court asking for the National Investigation Agency’s intervention in the matter. She accused the state police of not showing an interest in investigating the case.