Mumbai: A joint team of Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad and Kerala police on Thursday arrested a youth allegedly associated with controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's foundation in connection with a case registered in Kochi.
A senior police official said Arshid Qureshi, who was associated with Islamic Research Foundation (IRF) of Zakir Naik, was nabbed from Navi Mumbai.
A case under IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 153 A (promoting enmity between groups) as well as under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was registered in Kochi.
He was produced before the Belapur court in Navi Mumbai which granted Kerala police his transit remand till July 25. Kerala police will now produce him in a court in Kochi.
The intelligence agencies have been trying to find out Qureshi as brother of Merin, one of the 21 missing Keralites said to have joined the Islamic State (IS), alleged that he was forced by a member of controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik's IRF to convert to Islam and join the IS. He identified the person as Arshid Qureshi.
Security agencies were trying to find out who Qureshi could be, as Merin's brother could not recall his Mumbai address and did not have even his photo. The agencies, then, suspected that the name Qureshi may be a pseudonym.
Last week, Kerala police booked Merin, Yahiya and Qureshi under UAPA on a complaint from Merin's family that the duo had 'radicalized' her.
In the complaint with Palarivattom police station, the brother alleged that Merin was trapped and converted to Islam and radicalized by Yahiya, a Christian from Palakkad who had embraced Islam, and Qureshi during her stay in Mumbai in connection with her job last year, police said.
Also read: Merin's mother had cautioned her of ISIS trap
They also compelled her to join the IS, her brother alleged, police said.
Merin, who hailed from a Christian family at Edappally in Kochi, had married Yahiya, her former classmate, and converted to Islam under the name Mariam while she was in Mumbai.
Merin is one among at least 21 youths from Kerala who had gone missing after reportedly traveling to the Middle East. Yahiya's brother Eeza and his wife Fathima are also missing.
(With agency inputs)