The Kerala State Women’s Commission has asked the Kerala Police for a report on the situation Akhila, alias Hadia (25), the homeopathy doctor who had converted from Hindu religion to Islam and married a Muslim youth in an alleged case of love Jehad, is reportedly facing in the custody of her parents.
The commission has instructed the Superintendent of Police, Kottayam that the report should be based on a thorough inquiry to be conducted by an officer of not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police into the situation being faced by Akhila/Hadia who is currently lodged at the house of her father KM Asokan at TV Puram near Vaikom in Kottayam district.
The action of the commission followed a Press conference held the other day at Kochi by social activist Rahul Easwar at which he released a video-clipping in which Akhila Hadia was seen complaining that she was undergoing extreme torture in the hands of her parents and that she feared she could be killed by her father, KM Asokan, any moment.
“I may get killed tomorrow or the day after… I am certain about that. My father is getting angry. He is (frequently) kicking my legs and hands. If he beats me on my head or body at any time and if I am killed…” the woman was seen as saying in the video. Easwar had recorded the interview when she had met her and her parents at their house last August.
The social activist had said at the Press conference that he was in possession of more videos of Akhila/Hadia speaking to him and had handed over these to the Women’s Commission.
His visit to Asokan’s house had stirred up a controversy in Kerala as the police guarding it as per a court order had not been allowing anybody, especially rights workers, to meet Akhila/Hadia.
The women’s commission, headed by chairperson MC Josephine, a central committee member of the CPI(M), is currently under fire from human and women’s rights activists and Muslim women’s outfits for its reluctance to directly assess Akhila/Hadia’s situation and for finding “excuses” to avoid that by stating that the case is under the court’s consideration.
“The High Court had entrusted Akhila/Hadia’s custody with her father. The Supreme Court has asked the NIA to look into the angle of her conversion to Islam in the context of allegations about love Jehad.
There is nothing in these orders that makes a visit by the commission to her house illegal or contempt of court,” said a Kochi-based women’s rights activist.
The commission has already filed a petition before the apex court seeking to implead in the Akhila/Hadia case stating that it had a statutory duty to inquire into the unfair treatment allegedly being meted out to her which would amount to violation of Section 17 of the Kerala State Women’s Commission Act of 1990.
The Supreme Court had on August 16 asked the NIA to look into the circumstances of her conversion to Islam. The High Court had on May 25 handed over her custody to her father annulling her marriage with Muslim youth Shaffin Jahan (27) on December 19 last year. Akhila had embraced Islam when she was studying homeopathic medicine in Tamil Nadu in 2015.
A section in the Kerala society believes that the Akhila/Hadia case is not an isolated one and that such cases are examples of love Jehad, a programme certain Islamists have devised to lure non-Muslim girls into Islam through pretended love, conversion and marriage.
However, the Kerala Police have consistently denied the existence of any such programme.