AHMEDABAD: The Kochi woman who has alleged that her husband, Mohammed Riyaz, attempted to sell her off as a sex slave to ISIS in Syria , was actually born and brought up in Jamnagar. This has been disclosed after investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

Mohammed Riyaz himself is a native of Kochi. His wife was born and brought up in Jamnagar but she shifted to Kerala after her father retired. The case was registered at Kochi police station in Kerala and transferred to the NIA which is looking forward to Gujarat police for assistance in the investigation into the Jamnagar link. Sources in the Gujarat police said they will assist the NIA in recording statements of witnesses in Jamnagar if the national agency approaches them.

Keralite who tried to ‘sell’ wife to ISIS denies charges

The sources said that the girl was born in the port city of Jamnagar where her parents used to live when her father was working there with a private company.

“The girl had also studied in a school at Jamnagar. The family shifted to Kerala after her father retired,” said a senior Gujarat police official who is in touch with the NIA, Kochi. Even as Mohammed Riyaz was taken into custody by the agency on Sunday after he landed at Chennai airport for interrogation, sources in the Gujarat police said the girl had come into contact with Mohammed Riyaz in 2014 when both were studying in the same college. “Later they fell in love. The girl has alleged that Riyaz had even filmed their intimate moments and threatened to make it viral if she did not convert to Islam and marry him. They got married in 2017,” a source in the police said.

The girl was then taken to Saudi Arabia by Mohammed Riyaz as his parents live in Jeddah. “The girl has alleged that here Riyaz had tried to sell her off in Syria as a sex slave to the ISIS. Fortunately she managed to call her parents and tip them off about Riyaz’s plans and was saved,” a police official said. Meanwhile, Mohammed Riyaz has rejected the girl’s allegations and claimed that she was being used as tool by her parents .

