Three held for girl's kidnap

 The Sampya police arrested three persons including Salmara Nooruddin, an advocate and secretary of the district Congress minorities unit and the District Muslim Central Committee, for allegedly kidnapping a girl and trying to convert her, at Ankathadka in Palthadi of Puttur taluk on Saturday.

According to police, the other two arrested are Althaf of Bettampady and Abdul Ajeed, a businessman. It is said that Jayanthi (19), daughter of Narayana Naik, had gone missing on Monday. The girl was engaged to a person from her own community 15 days ago.

The missing case had created curiosity among the villagers. In fact, Jayanthi had an affair with Ajeed.

There was a fight between the two families over the relationship and Ajeed was asked to break the relationship three months ago. As the police began to probe into the missing case, the police arrested Ajeed. Based on the information given by Ajeed, the police left for Ponnani in Kerala and brought Jayanthi back to Puttur.

With the help of Althaf and Nooruddin, Ajeed had planned to convert the girl at Ponnani. The three arrested were produced before the court, which remanded them to judicial custody for 15 days.