Rasheed has been booked for rape and kidnapping, criminal conspiracy, promoting religious enmity, and kidnapping, among others on charges of forcibly converting his Hindu wife to Islam and then trying to sell her off to IS as a sex slave. 

“He is being interrogated in connection with the love jihad case,” NIA sources said. But, they added that he would be handed over to NIA, Thiruvananthapuram for further investigation. Rasheed hails from Kannur, Kerala and arrived at Chennai airport on Friday morning around 9 am from Dammam via Colombo. He was detained by immigration officials based on a look out notice issued by the Kerala police and NIA. 

Earlier in the week, NIA had told the Kerala high court that it has taken over the investigation into a case in which a 25-year-old Hindu girl from Pathanamthitta was allegedly seduced and converted to Islam after her marriage to Rasheed whom she had met in Bengaluru. 

Also a main suspect, Rasheed was allegedly trying to smuggle her to Syria as a IS sex slave. The woman, alleging inaction by the police, had approached the court seeking an NIA probe, nullifying her marriage, retrieval of her passport, and changing her name in the passport.