When Doordarshan, the public broadcaster, aired the movie “The Kerala Story”, a film based on real life incidents attributing to Love Jihad, the secular brigade went berserk and staged agitations demanding the cancellation of the screening of the film. “This is an attempt to portray the State in bad light in front of the world and we strongly object the Doordarshan airing a movie like this,” said Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of the State.
Thousands of Hindu and Christian girls had been trapped in love relationship by love jihadis, made them convert to Islam and sent away to the war-torn Syria, Jordan and Iraq to fight with the IS terrorists. These girls were dumped as sex slaves in IS strongholds after some time.
Last month (March 2024) saw the Kerala experiencing a frenzy under the title “The Real Kerala Story” which told how people came together and pooled in Rs 34 crore as blood money to save the life of a Kozhikode youth from death penalty in a Saudi Arabia prison.
Abdul Rahim, a resident of Kozhikode district had come to Saudi in November 2006 with a house driver visa was given the task of looking after his master’s son, a paralysed boy of 15 years who needed round-the-clock aid. The boy had a contraption attached to his neck through which he breathed and was fed. In December 2006, Rahim has taken the boy out for a ride as per his master’s order. While he was driving the car, the boy got furious and spat on the face of Rahim. The driver claims that he pushed the boy down to escape from his wrath and in the melee the contraption fell down resulting in the boy’s death.
Shocked over by the development, Raheem telephoned his friend who rushed to the spot and they together made a story that the car came under attack of robbers and it was during the attack, the boy lost his life. But the investigators established in the court that it was a case of murder. The trial court sentenced Rahim to death which was upheld by the Supreme Court of that country. Though Rahim’s family sought clemency from death sentence, the victim’s family was adamant that the accused should face the death sentence.
Despite the Supreme Court’s decision well wishers of Rahim tried to save the youth from the gallows and the court asked the relatives of the victim whether the accused could be saved from death by accepting blood money which ran to Rs 34 crore. This was flashed across Kerala as a major breakthrough and “Save Rahim” initiative succeeded in mobilizing Rs 34 crore through crowd finding.
It is here the story took a twist.
The CPI(M), Congress and the Muslim League lambasted the Narendra Modi Government for its indifference to Rahim’s case. Begum Nuzrath Jahan, a social activist from Kozhikode, who had cultivated a network of friends and officials in West Asian countries got into he act and spoke to highly placed Saudi officials who informed her that the report on blood money was fake. “The Court had asked the family of the victim whether they would agree to a deal involving the accused pay blood money and pardon Rahim from undergoing death penalty, I even spoke to Alavikkutty Musliyar, a Keralite who worked as a translator in this case. He told me that no such deal has been brokered,” Nuzrath Jahan told The Pioneer.
She said this was a serious issue but the Saudi Government has not intimated the Indian embassy in Riyadh anything about this case. If only a Government to Government communication takes place, the Indian Government could speak to the Saudi Government in cases like this. Don’t you think Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Foreign Minister Dr Jayasankar will sit idle once they are intimated about such a deal?” asked Nuzrath Jahan.
Now, the question is who authorised whom to crowdfund the blood money and what are they going to do with the money so collected. Nuzrath Jahan also mentioned that the possibility of hawala racket and money laundering should be probed in this case. “Kerala’s Real Story” has turned out to be an embarrassment to liberals, secularists and anti-fascist forces.
