Love Jihad is For Real, NIA Tells Supreme Court

Source – news18.com

New Delhi: The National Investigation agency on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that ‘love jihad’ is for real. Top sources within the agency told CNN-News18 that their investigations into the Popular Front of India in the last few years was the basis of this claim.

NIA submitted a 22-page report to the Supreme Court in which references were made to PFI cases in Kerala.

The apex court had asked the NIA for a report on ‘love jihad’ after one Shafin Jahan challenged the annulment of his marriage to a Hindu woman by the Kerala High Court last December.

Jahan is reportedly a member of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of PFI. NIA’s chargesheet in the murder case of RSS worker Rudresh stated that PFI and its affiliated political organisation SDPI had conspired to attack and kill Rudresh to strike terror among a section of people and also to establish an Islamic caliphate. Rudresh was killed in October 2016 in Bengaluru.

Sources said NIA’s report to the Supreme Court also made a mention of the Athira-Ayesha conversion case. The Kasargod girl had allegedly converted to Islam against the wishes of her parents and NIA had done a preliminary enquiry in the matter.

A report submitted by the NIA to the Kerala High Court in 2016 said that a criminal case for forced conversion was filed in the case.

NIA has been investigating PFI in at least three cases – the professor arms chopping case of 2015, the Kannur arms training camp case of 2013 and murder of the RSS activist.

Sources say investigators noticed a pattern of ‘love jihad’ or forced religious conversion during these investigations. Kerala Police has also handed over nearly 2,500 pages of documents in support of its claim that forced conversion is part of a greater conspiracy in Kerala.

In the case of the Kerala woman, the Supreme Court made it clear that it will speak to the 25-year-old Hindu woman before deciding validity of her marriage to Jahan after her conversion to Islam.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar asked the NIA to investigate under guidance of its former judge R V Raveendran after the lawyers for the Muslim man, whose marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court, gave their consent to the probe.