facbook twitter googlepluse Youtube ‘Love Jihad’: Two fresh cases reach SC, hearing resumes today

Source – intoday.in

The high-voltage Supreme Court hearing in the Kerala ‘love jihad’ case is all set to get more rancorous. At a time CJI Dipak Misra ponders whether to continue with the NIA probe ordered by his predecessor JS Khehar to verify if there was any “ulterior or criminal” motive in Kerala-based Muslim youth Shafin Jahan marrying a Hindu girl Akhila after she converted to Islam, pleas for NIA investigation into two more similar cases landed in the court on the eve of a crucial hearing.

The SC had said it wanted to ascertain if Hadiya was indeed trapped by a “well-oiled racket that uses psychological measures to indoctrinate people and persuade them to join terror groups such as ISIS” as alleged by her father and endorsed by the state HC, which quashed the marriage and gave the girl’s custody to her father.

A new petition has been filed by one Bindu from Kerala, who’s daughter Nimisha converted to Islam to become Fathima, married a Christian who embraced Islam later and who allegedly lured her away to Afghanistan and recruited her into ISIS. The other is by Sumathi Arya, a ‘victim’ from Latur in Maharashtra, who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam and get indoctrinated to join and “support the activities of SIMI, ISIS and radical preacher Zakir Naik”.

PLEAS FILED THROUGH SC ADVOCATE AISHWARYA BHATI

Both of them in pleas filed through advocate Aishwarya Bhati urged that agencies such as NIA and IB be tasked “at the earliest to investigate cases of suspected love jihad, identify culprits, draw out trends and address the issue quickly before any serious damage occurs”. “We have information that ‘jihadi romeos’ are given two weeks to find a girl of another religion and six months to convert her to Islam. The youths are given cell phones, bikes and fashionable clothes to accomplish their sinister mission. For every conversion, the men receive a monetary reward – usually Rs 5 to 7 lakh,” they said.

With these two new pleas, the battle lines are clearly drawn in the case which initially pertained just to Hadiya and Jahan. Fireworks are expected when the apex court resumes hearing on Monday.

HADIYA’S CASE GETS A NEW PUSH

Ashokan, Hadiya’s father who is fighting it out to have continued custody of her daughter against Jahan, who challenged Kerala HC’s quashing of the marriage, now gets the support of Bindu, Arya and most significantly the Centre. On the side of Jahan, who argues that the HC had no power to annul the marriage between two adults, is the state government and Kerala police. The new petitions are also significant as they come a week after a bench headed by CJI Misra observed that primafacie, HC had no power to annul the marriage.

He also said Hadiya’s father had no authority to keep an adult daughter under forced custody. The pleas come a day after the CPI(M)-led Kerala government said its probe did not find commission of any “scheduled offence” and opposed an NIA investigation.