Sources from the investigating agencies said Khan had also helped the couple with legal paperwork when they converted from Christianity to Islam.
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Within hours after his detention, Quershi was placed under arrest by the visiting team of Kerala Police in connection with a case registered against in Kochi on July 17.
On July 21, Kerala Police, assisted by Maharashtra ATS, arrested Arshi Qureshi, associated with IRF, from Navi Mumbai for allegedly radicalising youths.
The next day the NIA had claimed that the five persons arrested (Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani alias Ibbu, Habeeb Mohammed alias Sir, Mohammed Ilyas Yazdani, Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Amoodi and Muzaffar Hussain Rizwan) were getting instructions from ISIS for planning and carrying out terrorist activities in India. Khan came under the police scanner after his name emerged in the investigations into the alleged conversion of Merin Jacob alias Miriam, who was forced by her husband Bestin Vincent alias Yahya, himself a convert to Islam.
Khan was produced before a Magistrate court here, which granted his transit remand to the Kerala Police till July 25. “We arrested Rizwan Khan as we found his signature on the marriage draft and he was the person accompanying Qureshi”. His custody is expected to be handed over to Kerala ATS. Qureshi, suspected to be an Islamic State recruiter, is also a member of radical preacher Dr Zakir Naik’s Islamic Research Foundation.
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At least 21 youths from Kerala were reported missing and suspected to have joined ISIS.
