Two days after the Supreme Court set aside a Kerala High Court order annulling her marriage, Hadiya (26), Hindu woman Akhila who embraced Islam three years back, and her Muslim husband Shaffin Jahan (29), an alleged activist of Islamist Popular Front of India (PFI), called on top PFI leaders to convey their gratitude for the help the outfit had provided during her conversion and for their legal battle.
“Only the popular front was there to help us during our troubled times,” Hadiya told newsmen after meeting PFI’s chairman E Abubacker and other top leaders at Unity House, the outfit’s headquarters in Kozhikode, on Saturday morning. Popular Front leaders said they would continue to help the couple as it was a matter of “protection of human rights”.
Hadiya, who has availed three days’ leave from the college in Salem, Tamil Nadu where she is doing her degree course in homeopathy medicine, and Shaffin had arrived in Malappuram late Friday night. The meeting with the Popular Front leaders on Saturday morning was Hadiya’s first programme on her first visit to her home State, Kerala, in the past three months.
The development triggered allegation from those who view Hadiya’s conversion and marriage with the Muslim youth as a case of love Jehad that the meeting was proof of Shaffin’s connections with the Popular Front, which is under the scanner of investigating and Intelligence agencies for its alleged links with terror outfits.
Stating that “I am happy to be free (following Thursday’s Supreme Court order)”, Hadiya said, “My marriage became a controversy only because of my conversion (to Islam). Can’t anyone convertIJ The Constitution guarantees everyone the right to embrace the religion of his or her choice.”
Hadyia, who had spent over six months at the house of her father KM Asokan at Vaikom in Kottayam as per the instructions issued on May 24 by the High Court which on the same day had annulled her marriage, has been at the Salem college since November end after the Supreme Court allowed her to continue her studies. She may return to Salem on Monday.
Asserting that only the PFI was there to help her during her difficult times, Hadiya said, “When I decided to convert to Islam, I had approached some other (Muslim) organizations but they did not show any interest in helping me. Many had tried to find fault with me over conversion and marriage. It was the PFI which had given me help.”
Asked about the ongoing NIA investigation against him, Shaffin said, “let the agency continue with its probe. I believe I will get justice.” The NIA has reportedly found that Shaffin has been a member of a WhatsApp group formed to propagate Islamic State (ISIS) ideology and that he had close connections with two suspected operatives of the Kerala module of the ISIS.
PFI leader Nazeeruddeen Elamaram, who was present at the meeting, said his outfit would continue to provide all possible assistance to Hadiya and Shaffin. “We have so far given Hadiya and Shaffin all help that the law permits. We will continue to do that. What is wrong in giving assistance in issues of human rightsIJ” he asked.
Hindu woman Akhila had embraced Islam and assumed the name of Hadiya in 2015 when she was doing her Homeopathy medicine course in Salem. She married Shaffin on December 19, 2016. The legal battle started with her father Asokan, a former Indian Army soldier, approaching the Kerala High Court with a Habeas Corpus petition.
The High Court annulled the marriage and entrusted Hadiya’s custody with Asokan on May 24 last year. Shaffin then moved the Supreme Court on the basis of which it scrapped the High Court order on Thursday. Asokan, who accuses Shaffin of having extremist connections, has vowed to continue his legal battle.
Demanding a thorough probe into Shaffin’s alleged terror links, BJP’s former Kerala chief V Muraleedharan said on Saturday that the couple’s meeting with the PFI leaders on Hadiya’s very first visit after the apex court order and Shaffin’s open admission that they had got the Islamist outfit’s help indicated the terror connections of the whole affair.