Kerala ‘love jihad’: Hadiya’s father says she is not under house arrest

The Kerala high court annulled Hadiya’s marriage with a Muslim man and ordered her to return to live with her parents in the southern state’s Kottayam district.

The father of Hadiya, a 24-year-old Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, denied on Monday his daughter was under house arrest and said he will produce her before the Supreme Court on November 27 as directed.

Twenty-four-year-old Hadiya married a Muslim man, Shefin Jehan, last December. Her father, however, moved court, saying she was ‘indoctrinated’ in a case of ‘love jihad’. (HT File Photo)

Speaking to the media at Vaikom in Kottayam district, Asokan said: “It does not matter to me which faith my daughter decides to choose. She is not at all under house arrest. I myself have told her to go where she wants as there will be always police protection. But it’s her decision that she prefers not to go anywhere.”

Asokan added at no cost would he accept Shafin Jahan, a Muslim man who married his daughter last year after which she changed her faith.

In New Delhi, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra heard on Monday Jahan’s plea against the Kerala high court order of May annulling the marriage.

Hadiya’s father had appealed for in-camera proceedings, but the Supreme Court declined his request.

The marriage had been challenged in the high court by Asokan, who alleged that Jahan had links with terror group IS.

Jahan had also pleaded before the Supreme Court to cancel the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into their marriage. The NIA probe was ordered by the apex court.