Days before the Supreme Court is set to hear the Kerala religious conversion case, Hadiya’s husband Shafin Jahan has filed a complaint claiming some people were trying to convert her back to Hinduism, ANI reported on Saturday.
Hadiya’s conversion to Islam after her marriage to Shafin Jahan has led to a controversy. On Monday, the Supreme Court is set to hear Hadiya in person before giving its verdict in the case.
Last Tuesday, Hadiya’s father Ashokan had filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking in-camera proceedings on Monday. He had said in the petition that his daughter’s privacy was important. He had also cited the communally sensitive nature of the case and threats from radical elements to him and his family. But the court refused an urgent hearing and said it will decide the in-camera proceedings matter on Monday itself.
On November 20, Ashokan had stopped the Kerala Women’s Commission from meeting his daughter for a second time in as many weeks.
Shafin Jahan had moved the Supreme Court in August, against a Kerala High Court order that annulled the marriage and asked that Hadiya be sent to her parents. The Supreme Court had held that a woman’s consent as an adult is the most important aspect to consider in a case.
Hadiya’s father Ashokan had approached the High Court after she converted to Islam to marry Jahan in 2016. He had alleged that Muslim organisations planned to take her abroad and make her join the Islamic State, and said that Jahan was involved in terror activities. Hadiya was known as Akhila Ashokan before she converted.
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