KOCHI: The National Investigating Agency (NIA) has decided to again question A S Sainaba, the Malappuram-based national president of the women’s wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), who was allegedly shown admitting to encouraging forced conversions in a TV sting operation. According to NIA officers, Sainaba will be interrogated based on the evidence they collected as part of the probe into the Hadiya case.
“We had quizzed Sainaba a few weeks ago. More evidence against her role in religious conversions was unearthed in the probe. Based on it, we will summon her for interrogation again. The date has not been fixed. However, it will be conducted soon,” an NIA officer said.Earlier, the probe had revealed the involvement of A Sainaba and Manjeri-based Sathya Sarani in several conversion cases. “The role of Sarani was evident in over 10 religious conversion cases reported by the Kerala Police in the past six months. We have information the Kerala Police were also probing her involvement,” the officer said.
NIA took over the probe into the Hadiya case following a Supreme Court directive. However, the agency decided to widen the probe by looking into other suspected forceful conversion incidents.The source of funding to various religious establishments involved in conversions is also being probed. “Even the initial investigation revealed several women were being converted to Islam. We interrogated around five women. All of them have denied forceful conversion. However, we are still probing how the conversions took place,” the officer said.