Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing allegations made by a 25-year-old woman that her husband forced her to convert to Islam and attempted to sell her as a ‘sex slave’ to terror outfit Islamic State (ISIS), questioned a commercial tax officer’s wife in Bengaluru in the case.
NIA sources on Saturday disclosed that they had questioned the wife of Irshadullah Khan, deputy commissioner of commercial tax, Kalburgi district, on June 6 and 7 and confiscated eight laptops and 12 cellphones from her.
Confirming the searches, supervising officer of south India NIA operations and inspector general of police Alok Mittal said, “The victim had told us that she attended Islamic Studies classes conducted by the tax officer’s wife while studying in Bengaluru on the insistence of the accused. Based on this information, we conducted searches on June 6 and 7. We have seized laptops, cellphones and SIM cards from her house. The victim did not stay at the officer’s house but frequented it as part of her coaching. The investigation is on.”
Speaking to News 18, a highly placed source in the agency said, “The officer’s wife may have helped the accused even after knowing that he was involved in unlawful activities. We are focusing on recovering data from the laptops and cellphones seized from Khan’s house. Prima facie, it appears she was involved in providing logistics and other kind of support to the accused. So far, we haven’t found any direct link of the officer. The probe is on and it will be a fair investigation.”
Khan has been posted in Kalburgi for the past four years and his wife, who works as an engineer, resides in Bengaluru.
The officer admitted that his wife was questioned by the NIA but “they have no links to the conspiracy”. “My wife was questioned by the NIA officials because the complainant had stayed in my house for 15 days in 2016. We have no links to the conspiracy of forceful conversion or any other harassment that the victim faced. We will give full support to the investigators and I am sure my family will be proven innocent,” he added.
The case came into the limelight when the woman, who is a native of Kerala but lives in Gujarat, alleged that accused Muhammed Riyaz lured her, raped her, recorded her nude videos and pictures on his phone and threatened her to become disciple of televangelist Zakir Naik.
She also alleged that Riyaz married her by forging documents and forcibly converted her to Islam. The accused reportedly created a fake passport, illegally confined the 25-year-old and threatened her in Kerala before taking her to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in August 2017 to sell her off to ISIS terrorists.
The victim also said in her complaint that Riyaz had joined the Islamic State in Jeddah and received funds from them for “unlawful activities”.
A case was filed by the woman’s parents in Kerala under various sections of the IPC and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. The FIR registered by the police named nine accused, of which four are from Bengaluru.
NIA had arrested Riyaz on February 3 from the Chennai airport after his return from Jeddah. In his statement to the agency, he had rejected all charges of rape, blackmail and links to ISIS and called it a case of a “marriage gone sour”.
During interrogation, NIA also learnt that Riyaz was forced to come back to India from Jeddah after his cousin and friends were arrested by Kerala Police.
Top officials involved with the probe had told CNN-News18 that prima facie, no evidence had been found, but the ISIS link would be investigated further.
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