NEW DELHI: National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) probe into interfaith marriages in Kerala came to an end, and the cases that were examined found no evidence of coercion or entrapment reported Hindustan Times.
“The NIA is not supposed to file any further report in this regard in the Supreme Court. As far as the NIA is concerned, the matter stands closed as the agency has not found any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or the woman was coerced to convert,” said a senior agency official who spoke to Hindustan Times on condition of anonymity.
As part of its investigation into so-called cases of “love jihad,” the NIA had chosen 11 cases of interfaith marriages out of the 89 marriages that were already before law enforcement authorities.
Among the 11 cases examined by NIA, it found there were at least four interfaith marriages where Hindu men embraced Islam. In the rest of the cases, Hindu women married Muslim men. In at least three cases, efforts for conversion did not succeed.
The investigation happened in the background of Hadiya alias Akhila Asokan, 24, a homoeopathy doctor, converted to Islam and married Shefin Jahan from Kollam following which Kerala High Court annulled Hadiya’s marriage after a petition filed by her father.
Setting aside a Kerala HC judgement, Supreme Court ruled that the marriage was valid.
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The NIA official probing the cases found that a similar set of people and organisations associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI) were involved in helping either the couple involved in a relationship to embrace Islam.
But “it didn’t find any prosecutable evidence to bring formal charges against these persons under any of the scheduled offences of the NIA, like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” added the official.