Supreme Court orders NIA probe into Hindu girl’s conversion to Islam

coastaldigest.com web desk

August 16, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 16: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the plea of a Muslim man whose marriage with a Hindu convert Muslim woman (Akhila alias Hadiya) was annulled by the Kerala High Court as per the request of her Hindu parents.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar and justice DY Chandrachud ordered NIA to launch a probe into the conversion and marriage of the girl, who was known as Akhila but converted to Islam and changed her name to Hadiya, to a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan. The marriage had taken place in 2016.

Justice RV Ravindran, a retired judge of the apex court, will supervise the investigation.

The Kerala HC on May 25 had declared as "null and void," the marriage of 24-year-old Hadiya who had renounced Hinduism and embraced Islam on her own will. However, the court had described the case as an instance of 'love jihad' and ordered the state police to conduct probe into such cases.

In its earlier hearing, the apex court had termed the case as "serious" and "sensitive". The bench had asked the NIA and father of the woman to give all the materials in their possession to the court.

"These are very sensitive issues.. It's a serious matter... You give us all the materials you have," the apex court had told them.

"Issue notice. Madhvi Divan, advocate... on behalf of respondent number one (father) seeks a week's time, so as to enable her to place material on the record of this case. Prayer is allowed. Needful be done within one week from today," the bench said.

The woman's husband, Shafin Jahan, has filed a plea challenging the HC order saying it was an "an insult to the independence of woman in India".

Advocate Madhvi Divan, appearing for Hadiya's father, said she was a "helpless victim" trapped by a "well-oiled racket" which used "psychological measures" to indoctrinate people and convert them to Islam.

The lawyer went on to claim that Jahan was a criminal and Akhila was trapped by a network with connections to Popular Front of India and even the Islamic State. However, the lawyer did not provide any proof for his claim.

Background

Ashokan Mani, an ex-serviceman filed Habeas Corpus petition before the Kerala High Court on January 25, 2016 when he found that his daughter Akhila (now Hadiya) was missing from the campus she studied. Akhila was a student of the Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery course in Salem.

In his petition, Ashokan alleged that his daughter was forcibly converted to Islam and sought the help of the court to find her. Ashokan named two of Akhila's classmates Jaseena Aboobaker and her sister Faseena - residents of Perinthalmanna - as the persons behind her disappearance from the campus under mysterious circumstances.

Ashokan said in his petition that Akhila and eight other friends including Jaseena and Faseena were staying in a rented house near their college in Salem. They used to visit her friends' home in Perinthalmanna during holidays.

Daughter was afraid of Hindu father

Ashokan mentioned in his petition that he noticed some behavioural changes in her daughter when came home to attend her grandfather's funeral in December 2015. Ashokan said that Akhila was not ready to perform Hindu rituals.

On January 6, 2017 Ashokan received a phone call from the father of one of Akhila's classmate informing him that his daughter was seen wearing veil and that she was converted to Islam.

The news was a shock to Ashokan. Family members passed information to Akhila that her father suffered a mild heart attack because of her. However, she was not ready to visit father as she was afraid that he may not allow her to follow Islam.

Father’s allegation and daughter’s clarification

Ashokan later told police that Akhila had informed him that she was being forcibly held by people including Jaseena and Aboobacker. Ashokan claimed in his petition that those people were engaged in forcible conversion of vulnerable youths of other faiths.

On the complaint by Ashokan, police began probe. Hadiya was found but she submitted an affidavit before Perinthalmanna police that she was following Islam since 2012 and had willingly left her home. She rubbished the allegation made by her father and family members.

Hadiya told the police officials that she joined a course run by Tharbiathul Islam Sabha, Kottackal in Malappuram to learn Islam and shifted her residence to Satyasarani in Manjery - an Islamic Institution.

According to her affidavit, Hadiya stayed in Aboobacker's home for a brief period. Hadiya later shifted to Satyasarani's hostel for girls and completed her course. Satyasarani introduced her to Sainaba from Ernakulam and started staying with her after her father filed Habeas Corpus petition.

First order of high court

Hadiya told the court that she was not under any illegal confinement against her free will. She also told the court that she was not willing to go to her father's house. She insisted that she wanted to pursue her Islamic studies at Satyasarani.

In June last year, the Kerala High Court allowed Hadiya to stay with Sainaba. Later Hadiya informed the court that she had taken admission in Satyasarani and produced records of her admission in the religious institution. Consequently, Kerala High Court dismissed the Habeas Corpus petition filed by Ashokan Mani.

Father introduces ‘terror’ angle

The June 2016 order of the Kerala High Court should have been the end of the matter. But, ex-soldier Ashokan Mani decided to file habeas corpus petition. Ironically, this time he raised terror angle!

Ashokan alleged that her daughter was converted to Islam at the behest of the ISIS. He feared that Hadiya might be taken out of India to join the ranks of Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Ashokan mentioned about two separate cases of women vanishing from Kerala allegedly to join the ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan after they were converted to Islam and married to Muslim men.

Twists and Turns

The Kerala High Court, at first, was not impressed with the reference to the ISIS. The court asked Ashokan's lawyer CK Mohanan to delete the reference to the ISIS in his petition as it was irrelevant.

But, Mohanan was insistent and argued that Kerala police were investigating a case of missing 21 persons from the state. They are suspected to have been taken to Afghanistan. A heated exchange took place in the open court between the lawyers and the bench.

Justices PN Ravindran and Justice Dama Seshadri Naidu slapped ordered contempt proceedings against lawyer Mohanan in 2016. The court pronounced him guilty in the case and sentenced him to three months imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000.

Ashokan assured the court that he would not engage Mohanan in future. The high court shifted Hadiya from the custody of Sainaba to SNV Sadanam, Ernakulam - a ladies' hostel.

Meanwhile, Hadiya got married to Shafeen Jahan of Kollam in December last year. The matter came up in January this year before the Kerala High Court, which was hearing the second Habeas Corpus writ filed by Ahokan.

Hadiya produced marriage certificate issued by Puthur Juma Masjid in Malappuram and marriage registration certificate by local panchayat authorities. But, the Kerala High Court has declared both the marriage and the certificates as invalid.

Why HC nullified wedding?

The court in its judgment said that the marriage was done by strangers and her parents did not participate in the function.

"Marriage being the most important decision in her (Hadiya’s) life can only be taken with the active involvement of her parents," the Kerala High Court observed.

"The marriage, which is alleged to have taken place, is a sham and is of no consequence in the eye of law. Her husband has no authority to act as the guardian,'' the court further remarked.

The Kerala High Court also directed the State Police Chief to conduct departmental inquiry against Perinthalmanna Deputy Superintendent of Police for not investigating the case properly and take appropriate action.

The court verdict said that investigation should also be carried out about the activities of Sathyasarani, a renowned Islamic educational institution at Manjeri regarding conversion of religion.

The court also had ordered an investigation into whether there was any breach on the part of the officer who had investigated the case earlier. It is to be noted that the investigating officer appointed by the same court had categorically said that the complainant’s claims were baseless.

Comments

Her Father and many like him have fallen to the mind wash of the media... We request the father to read the QURAN once in your life time or atleast now to avoid the confusion on his daughter who started to worship ONE GOD ALLAH which is also mentioned in your vedas and BG. God made us to worship him alone ... YOUR DAUGHTER recognised that but U need to recognize too...Please read the book of the CREATOR, The QURAN, ALLAH loves when the creation try to know about him and PONDER on how all this exists and also knowing the perfectness in the creation of human being... as well as those which are visible and not visible to us.

Allah is able to do all thing... The media 24/day tries to demonize ISLAM and Muslims... but ALLAH has a different plan . The more they demonize , the more people are accepting ISLAM, not just in india but all over the world. I think its time to NON MUSLIMs to know about one GOD ALLAH rather than depending on the LIES and deception of the media. QURAN is the manual for human being on how to live a life that ALLAH has given us. Dont be idle .. Learn about GOD before death approaches us. Look the knowledge of MEDIA & compare it with the divine knowledge that is mentioned in the QURAN.ALLAHU AKBAR - God is Greatest.

If some one want to know the circumstances under which the court came to this order you can go through the actual judgement

http://judis.nic.in/Judis_Kerala/list_new2_Pdf.asp?FileName=520925

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India ranks 77th on sustainability, 131st in child flourishing index: UN

Agencies

February 20,2020

India ranked 77th on a sustainability index that takes into account per capita carbon emissions and ability of children in a nation to live healthy lives and secures 131st spot on a flourishing ranking that measures the best chance at survival and well-being for children, according to a UN-backed report.

The report was released on Wednesday by a commission of over 40 child and adolescent health experts from around the world. It was commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and The Lancet medical journal.

In the report assessing the capacity of 180 countries to ensure that their youngsters can survive and thrive, India ranks 77th on the Sustainability Index and 131 on the Flourishing Index, it said.

Flourishing is the geometric mean of Surviving and Thriving. For Surviving, the authors selected maternal survival, survival in children younger than 5 years old, suicide, access to maternal and child health services, basic hygiene and sanitation, and lack of extreme poverty.

For Thriving, the domains were educational achievement, growth and nutrition, reproductive freedom, and protection from violence.

Under the Sustainability Index, the authors noted that promoting today's national conditions for children to survive and thrive must not come at the cost of eroding future global conditions for children's ability to flourish.

The Sustainability Index ranks countries on excess carbon emissions compared with the 2030 target. This provides a convenient and available proxy for a country's contribution to sustainability in future.

The report noted that under realistic assumptions about possible trajectories towards sustainable greenhouse gas emissions, models predict that global carbon emissions need to be reduced from 39·7 giga tonnes to 22·8 gigatonnes per year by 2030 to maintain even a 66 per cent chance of keeping global warming below 1·5°C.

It said that the world's survival depended on children being able to flourish, but no country is doing enough to give them a sustainable future.

"No country in the world is currently providing the conditions we need to support every child to grow up and have a healthy future," said Anthony Costello, Professor of Global Health and Sustainability at University College London, one of the lead authors of the report.

"Especially, they're under immediate threat from climate change and from commercial marketing, which has grown hugely in the last decade," said Costello – former WHO Director of Mother, Child and Adolescent health.

Norway leads the table for survival, health, education and nutrition rates - followed by South Korea and the Netherlands. Central African Republic, Chad and Somalia come at the bottom.

However, when taking into account per capita CO2 emissions, these top countries trail behind, with Norway 156th, the Republic of Korea 166th and the Netherlands 160th.

Each of the three emits 210 per cent more CO2 per capita than their 2030 target, the data shows, while the US, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are among the 10 worst emitters. The lowest emitters are Burundi, Chad and Somalia.

According to the report, the only countries on track to beat CO2 emission per capita targets by 2030, while also performing fairly – within the top 70 – on child flourishing measures are: Albania, Armenia, Grenada, Jordan, Moldova, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Uruguay and Vietnam.

"More than 2 billion people live in countries where development is hampered by humanitarian crises, conflicts, and natural disasters, problems increasingly linked with climate change," said Minister Awa Coll-Seck from Senegal, Co-Chair of the commission.

The report also highlights the distinct threat posed to children from harmful marketing.

Evidence suggests that children in some countries see as many as 30,000 advertisements on television alone in a single year, while youth exposure to vaping (e-cigarettes) advertisements increased by more than 250 per cent in the US over two years, reaching more than 24 million young people.

Studies in Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and the US – among many others – have shown that self-regulation has not hampered commercial ability to advertise to children.

Children's exposure to commercial marketing of junk food and sugary beverages is associated with purchase of unhealthy foods and overweight and obesity, linking predatory marketing to the alarming rise in childhood obesity, it said.

The number of obese children and adolescents increased from 11 million in 1975 to 124 million in 2016 – an 11-fold increase, with dire individual and societal costs, the report said.

To protect children, the authors call for a new global movement driven by and for children.

Specific recommendations include stopping CO2 emissions with the utmost urgency, to ensure children have a future on this planet; placing children and adolescents at the centre of global efforts to achieve sustainable development, the report said.

New policies and investment in all sectors to work towards child health and rights; incorporating children's voices into policy decisions and tightening national regulation of harmful commercial marketing, supported by a new Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, it said.

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‘No alliance in future’: Cong-JDS turn archrivals once again in Karnataka

coastaldigest.com web desk

July 23,2020

Bengaluru, July 23: The Janta Dal (Secular) and Congress that had joined hands together in Karnataka ‘to keep communal forces at bay, have once again turned archrivals. The development comes a year after the collapse of JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state.

Recently, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah claimed that the Congress would have won at least 10 seats in the Lok Sabha elections had it not been for the alliance with the JD(S). In response, former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy of the JD(S), who headed the coalition government, blamed the Congress for its many 'conspiracies'.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Kumaraswamy said he was prompted by Siddarmaiah's claims to recall what transpired during the coalition government.

"There will never be a future alliance with Congress," Kumaraswamy declared, in a letter to his party colleagues on Wednesday. He claimed that there were many conspiracies on part of Congress, which led to the fall of the coalition government.

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166 stranded in UAE reach Mangaluru

coastaldigest.com news network

June 23,2020

Mangaluru, Jun 23: A charter flight carrying as many as 166 people including a child stranded in United Arab Emirates today reached Mangaluru.

The flight was chartered by M Friends Charitable Trust, Mangaluru and My Community Foundation with the sole intention of helping the repatriation of stranded passengers such as pregnant women, elderly people and those who are in need of emergency medical care.

The flydubia flight FZ4617 took off from Dubai at 2 p.m. and landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 7:22 p.m.

The passengers who arrived from UAE hail from different parts of coastal Karnataka and passengers themselves had borne the ticket fare for their travel.

M Friends president Haneef Haji Goltamajalu has thanked representatives of My Community Foundation and M Friends Trusty Ashraf Abbas Kunjattur, M Friends NRI leader Haneef Puttur, general secretary Rasheed Vittla for their efforts in chartering the flight.

In the last three weeks, 13 special flights with around 2150 passengers from various Gulf countries had landed at Mangaluru airport.

Already, throat swab samples of 1814 passengers, who had arrived in Mangaluru, have been tested and 239 people with international travel history have tested positive and the samples of 1,575 passengers have tested negative so far.