Hadiya alias Akhila Ashokan, a 24-year-old woman who has been in the headlines after she became a Muslim, filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court on Tuesday stating that she is a Muslim and wants to remain one.
She also stated that she wants to remain the wife of Shafi Jahan, for whom she had converted to Islam in order to get married.
Hadiya had already requested the apex court that she be allowed to be with her husband after the Kerala High Court annulled their marriage in May last year, terming it an as instance of ‘love jihad’.
Hearing the plea by Hadiya challenging the Kerala HC order, the top court asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to investigate the conversion of Hadiya to Islam and her marriage.
The NIA claimed there is a "well-oiled machinery working in Kerala" which indulged in indoctrination and radicalisation of women, and has cited 89 such cases from the state in its report.
On November 27, the Supreme Court freed Hadiya from her parents’ custody and directed the medical college in Salem to allow her with her internship, and also provide her with the hostel facility.
The court order came after Hadiya said that nobody forced her to convert to Islam. “I am a Muslim. I want to go with my husband. Nobody forced me to convert,” she said.
Last month, a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the legality of marriages among consenting adults couldn't be examined by courts and investigating agencies and added that its decision on Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan would not be influenced by the NIA probe it had ordered into the larger "love jihad conspiracy".
