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

Ahmed
 - 
Thursday, 17 Aug 2017

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.

 

Manjeshwaranna
 - 
Wednesday, 16 Aug 2017

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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News Network
January 31,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 31: Senior IPS officer Praveen Sood is the new Head of Police Force in Karnataka as the current DG and IG Neelamani Raju today retired.

Praveen Sood, the DIG of CID’s Economic Offences Wing, introduced several reforms that sped up investigation processes. He introduced the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System all over the state by networking all police stations in the country and ensuring data entry and retrieval of all information in police stations and higher police officers online.

Born in 1964, Sood graduated from IIT Delhi and joined the Indian Police Service in 1986. He kicked off his career as the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Mysuru in 1989. He has served as the SP of Ballari and Raichur before being posted as the Deputy Police Commissioner (Law and Order) of Bengaluru.

In 1999, he served as the police officer on foreign deputation as the police advisor to the Government of Mauritius for 3 years.  He was posted as Police Commissioner of Mysuru City between 2004 and 2007.

He took over as the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) in Bengaluru in 2008 and continued in the post till 2011. He has won the Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for excellence in service in 1996, the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2002  and the President’s Police Medal in 2011.

During 2013-14 he took over as Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation. He later worked as the Principal Secretary to the Home  Department as the Additional Director General of Police (Karnataka State Reserve Police) and the ADGP of Administration.

In 2017, he was appointed the Bengaluru Police Commissioner. He was also instrumental in launching “Suraksha” App and “Pink Hoyasalas” managed by all-women police officers.

As the DIG of the CID, Economic offences and Special Units, he is credited for opening the Centre for Cyber-crime Investigation, Training and Research for training police officers, prosecutors and the judiciary in handling cyber crime cases.

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News Network
May 26,2020

Bengaluru, May 26: Unknown miscreants have set ablaze 30-40 migrant labourers hutments in Bengaluru east, prompting police to take suo motu cognizance, an official said on Tuesday.

"As many as 30-40 migrant labourers' hutments have been set ablaze by unknown miscreants at Kacharakanahallin in KG Halli, we have taken suo motu cognizance of the crime," said a police official to media.

Police are investigating the arson invoking IPC Sections 143, 147, 188, 436, 123, 504, 506 and others.

"There was no loss of life in the arson as the migrant labourers were away at their hometowns because of COVID lockdown," said the official.

The labourers came from different parts of Karnataka to eke out a living and were living in those huts near the Rama Temple in KG Halli.

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News Network
January 14,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 14: A woman has sustained burns on the left hand and the left chest in a vicious acid attack that occurred as she walked home in Mallappa Layout, Seegehalli, near KR Puram in Bengaluru.

Prabhavathi, the victim, and her husband, Radhakrishna Reddy, own an acre and six guntas of land in Seegehalli. They had constructed 20 houses on the parcel and rented them while keeping the rest of the land empty and building a boundary wall around it, according to a senior police officer. 

Four men named Ravi, Kumar, Ashirvadam and Shekar laid claim to the land and demolished the boundary wall two years ago. When the couple approached the cops, Manjunath, a sub-inspector from KR Puram police station, visited the spot along with other officers and allegedly abused Reddy and his family. 

Reddy then approached a senior police officer who suggested that he file a complaint against the sub-inspector as well as his rivals for threatening the family. The case is pending in a case. 

On January 7, Ravi, along with four others — Raghu, Kabalan, Ashrivadam and Munireddy — mocked Prabhavathi as she walked home. They asked her to withdraw the complaint. When she ignored them, one of the men motioned to another person. In a flash, a man in the group threw acid on Prabhavathi. The liquid fell on her left hand and left chest, gashing them. Her screams drew her family who rushed her to a hospital. 

Reddy said the suspects had been intimidating them to sell the remaining land. He accused the KR Puram sub-inspector of “threatening” the family.

According to Reddy, following their complaint, a departmental enquiry was launched against the sub-inspector and his promotion was stalled. He suggested that the suspects had used the acid attack as a weapon to “silence” and force them into withdrawing the complaints. 

Following the acid attack, KR Puram police booked eight people — Ravi, Raghu, Kabalan, Ashirvadam, Munireddy, Sachin, Rahul, and Kumareshan — under IPC sections 326 (a) (acid attack) and 506 (criminal intimidation). Efforts are on to track them down. 

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