Hadiya case: NIA files FIR after Supreme Court directive

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered the First Investigation Report (FIR) in connection with the conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man in Kerala, on the directive of the apex court.

In a statement, the NIA said that the FIR related to Kerala's Perinthalmanna police station in Mallapuram district had been re-registered by the probe agency for investigation as per the order of Supreme Court. 

The Kerala High Court had annulled the marriage, terming it as an instance of "love jihad".

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The court had on August 16 asked the NIA to probe the case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman to a Muslim man, as the agency claimed it was not an isolated incident but a "pattern" emerging in Kerala. The apex court directed the NIA to probe the incident under the supervision of a retired apex court judge, Justice R V Raveendran. Referring to Blue Whale game, the top court also observed that it was now easy to persuade someone to perform a particular task.

"This will not be a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The NIA shall carry out the probe under the supervision of retired judge Justice R V Raveendran," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and D Y Chandrachud had said.

The bench said it wanted the probe to be fair and the NIA, being an independent agency outside the state of Kerala, can conduct the probe in an impartial manner and have a different point of view.

"Before forming any opinion or arriving at a conclusion, we would like to consider the NIA's probe report, inputs from the Kerala Police and talk to the woman," it said.

The bench directed the NIA to submit its final investigation report to the court to enable it to arrive at any conclusion on the matter.

The woman, a Hindu, had converted to Islam and later married Jahan. It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic States mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge.

Ashokan K M, the father of the woman, had alleged that there was a "well-oiled systematic mechanism" for conversion and Islamic radicalisation.

The high court, while declaring the marriage "null and void", had described the case as an instance of "love jihad" and ordered the state police to conduct a probe into such cases. 

(With inputs from PTI)
 

• Hadiya case
• supreme Court
• NIA
• Love jihad