Kerala man moves HC over daughter’s ‘forced conversion’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The father of a 19-year-old girl has moved the Kerala high court alleging that his daughter had been forced to convert to Islam by a man in north Kerala’s Kozhikode who entrapped her. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC) and National Commission for Minorities have condemned the incident and sought an independent inquiry.

The father, who moved the court on Monday, said he filed a police complaint two months ago, but the police did not take any action against the man. In his complaint, he said his daughter, a coaching class student, visited a theme park in the city with her friends on July 7 where she met the man and they became friends.

The father alleged that the man took his daughter to an empty building where he drugged and sexually assaulted her. He took a video of the assault and started blackmailing and forced her to convert to Islam, he said in his compliant to the Nadakkavu police station in Kozhikode. He said his daughter, who was on the verge of committing suicide, had confided to her parents. He said he filed a police complaint on August 5 and her statement was recorded before a duty magistrate. He said some police officers told him that the case would “stoke communal tension.”

When contacted a senior police officer of Kozhikkode said the man, Mohamad Jasim, 22, was under custody and an investigation was progressing. The state police would have no problem in handing over the case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA), the officer said, on the condition of anonymity.