The police team probing the alleged forcible conversion of a 25-year-old woman has found that her husband, Muhammad Riyas, used a fake Aadhaar card to register their marriage.
Official sources said the forgery came to light during an investigation in Bengaluru where the marriage had been registered. The police, however, are yet to find out how the accused had obtained the fake document. A police team had left for Bengaluru last week to trace the whereabouts of Riyas, a key accused in the case. Besides Bengaluru, they had carried out investigation in Kochi and across various locations of North Kerala.
In her petition to the Kerala High Court, the woman had alleged that Riyas had forged documents, including her Aadhaar card, to reflect her new Muslim name. The accused allegedly used these documents to get their marriage registered in May 2016.
The investigation has so far pointed to the role of a ‘dedicated network’ comprising about 10 people, including women, behind the woman’s conversion. They arrested two persons, identified as Fayas and Siyad, in connection with the case and booked them under provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, besides various IPC sections.
The woman, a native of Pathanamthitta who grew up in Gujarat, had met Riyas while studying in Bengaluru in 2014. About a year into their relationship, he allegedly forced her to have sex with him, recorded it and used it to threaten her into marriage.
