Bengaluru, Oct 13 (IANS): The Karnataka police have arrested five persons for the forceful conversion of a Hindu man to Islam.

The arrested persons have been identified as Ansar Pasha, former corporator in Bengaluru, Nayaz Pasha, Haaji Saab, Ataur Rehman and Shoib.

The police had arrested two accused earlier while the other three were arrested on Thursday. Nayaz Pasha was nabbed from Tamil Nadu.

Investigations revealed that initially Sridhar, hailing from Mandya, was interested in converting to Islam. The accused persons also got the circumcision ritual performed on Sridhar. After that, Sridhar did not want to proceed further but the accused forced him to get converted, the police said.

The case was earlier lodged in Navnagar police station in Hubballi city. It was later transferred to Banashankari police station in Bengaluru.

According to the police, Sridhar's parents had died and the ancestral property was in the name of his father's elder brother. After he initiated a case in this matter, the family was hostile towards him. Due to a financial crisis he had joined a cyber centre.

Sridhar had shared his problems with a Muslim man who was known to him. He had taken Sridhar to a Muslim religious leader. There the accused promised him help and transferred Rs 50,000 to his account. They asked Sridhar to follow their instructions and get converted to Islam.

After Sridhar showed resistance, the accused persons threatened him with a revolver, made him hold the weapon. After taking his photos holding the weapon, the accused threatened him that they would make his photo viral and brand him as a terrorist.

In the complaint Sridhar alleged that the accused had fed him beef in spite of his opposition and sent him to study the Quran at various places. The police have launched an investigation into the possibility of the accused running a religious conversion mafia.