Kerala love jihad case: Hadiya to study at Tamil Nadu college under her Hindu name Akhila Ashokan

The SC set Hadiya free from the custody of her parents and directed that she be allowed to complete her studies at a Salem homeopathy college.

SALEM: Kerala woman Hadiya, the alleged love jihad victim, on Tuesday reached here to complete her studies at a Salem homeopathy college.

College principal G Kannan said she would continue her course under her Hindu name Akhila Ashokan.

The Supreme Court on Monday set Hadiya free from the custody of her parents and directed that she be allowed to complete her studies at a Salem homeopathy college.

The 25-year old will be undergoing a 11-month internship at the institution as directed by the apex court.

Wearing a yellow scarf, she was whisked away to the Managing Director's office soon after arrival at the college campus in Salem, a town in Western Tamil Nadu.

Later, emerging from the office after about half-an-hour later, Hadiya said she has sought permission to meet her husband.

"I think they will allow," she told reporters.

Replying to a question, she said security was not necessary for her. But at least for two days security will be there, she added.

Later, she was taken in a police vehicle to the college hostel, located about five km away from here.

Can't have 'terrorist' in the family: Hadiya's father

The father of the Kerala woman on Tuesday welcomed the Supreme Court decision allowing her to continue her studies.

Asked about his stance on inter-religious marriages, Hadiya's father K M Ashokan said he believed in one religion and one god but could not have a terrorist in the family.

"Hadiya does not have any idea about Syria, where she wanted to go after converting to Islam," Ashokan said.

"I cannot have a terrorist in the family," he added.

Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, told the Supreme Court that she wants "freedom and release". The SC directed that she be allowed to complete her studies at a Salem homeopathy college in Tamil Nadu.

After a prolonged proceedings in the open courtroom, the top court did not accede to Hadiya's plea that she should be allowed to go with her husband. She also told the court she wanted "freedom" to live and profess Islamic faith.

The bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, which interacted with Hadiya for nearly half-an-hour in the courtroom against the wishes of her father who had sought an in-camera interaction, directed the Kerala police to provide her security and ensure that she travelled at the earliest to Salem in Tamil Nadu to pursue homeopathy studies at Sivaraj Medical College there.

She expressed her desire to complete her house surgeon internship and pursue her career as a homeopathic doctor.

"Freedom, release", Hadiya said in response to a question from Justice Chandrachud "What is your dream for the future?"

She was in the custody of her parents for last eight months.

Hadiya was in the custody of her parents for almost six months, after the Kerala High Court had on May 29 anulled her 'nikah' with Shafin Jahan. Hadiya, a Hindu by birth, had converted to Islam several months before her marriage.

The court fixed the plea of Jahan, challenging Kerala High Court's order annulling his marriage with Hadiya, for hearing in the third week of January next year.

Kerala HC had termed it a love jihad case

Earlier, a bench of former CJI Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud had ordered the premier probe agency to launch a probe into the conversion and marriage of the Kerala Hindu girl, who was known as Akhila but allegedly converted to Islam and changed her name to Hadiya, to a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan. The marriage had taken place in 2016.

Shafin on September 16 filed a plea requesting the top court to call off the NIA probe, alleging that the investigation agency "is not being fair".

Justice RV Ravindran, a retired judge of the apex court, is supervising the investigation.

The Kerala HC on May 25 had declared as "null and void" the marriage of 24-year-old Hadiya. It had described the case as an instance of 'love jihad' and ordered the state police to conduct probe into such cases.

Shafin Jahan filed another plea in SC challenging the HC order saying it was an "an insult to the independence of woman in India".

Jahan has claimed Hadiya, a homeopathy student in Kerala, converted to Islam of her own volition two years prior to their marriage and sought direction to Hadiya's father to present her in court.

However, Hadiya's father maintained that his daughter was a "helpless victim" trapped by a "well-oiled racket" which used "psychological measures" to indoctrinate people and convert them to Islam.

Hadiya's father plea says Jahan is a criminal and his daughter was trapped by a network with connections to Popular Front of India and even the Islamic State.

It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic State's mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge.

Hadiya was a homeopathy student in Kerala when she converted to Islam and changed her name. Jahan had met her with his family in August 2016 in response to her posting on a marriage website and they got married in December 2016.

But in August 2016 itself, her father had approached high court with a habeas corpus petition, alleging his daughter had been radicalised by some organisations and they had also influenced her to marry a Muslim man so that she is out of the parents' custody forever.

He had also apprehended that there could be a plan to send her to Syria to work with extremist organisations such as IS since the man she married had been working in the Gulf.