Hadiya aka Akhila not forced to embrace Islam: CBI

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Hadiya aka Akhila was not forced and it was her own decision to embrace Islam, said CBI team probing the Hadiya case.

According to Indian Express, the investigation team led by Ernakulam Crime Branch SP Santhosh Kumar has submitted the report to Crime Branch DGP A Hemachandran.

The report said Hadiya denied forced conversion and had given a statement in this regard. There is no evidence to prove any terrorist or communal outfit had influenced her to convert, the report added.

On Saturday, the Kerala government submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court opposing an NIA probe.  In the affidavit, the state government also expressed satisfaction over the Kerala police for effectively investigating the case.

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Hadiya’s private life become a matter of national debate after Kerala High Court, on May 25, had declared her marriage as “null and void” with Shafeen Jahan and ordered for placing her in her parents’ protective custody.

24-year-old Hadiya married to Jahan December 2016

Hadiya’s father said her daughter was a “helpless victim” and trapped by a “well-oiled racket” which used “psychological measures” to indoctrinate people and convert them to Islam.

Jahan, 27, then moved the top court against the High Court order, contending the ruling was an “insult to the independence of women in India”.

Jahan 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.

With IANS inputs