Kochi: Hadiya aka Akhila, who is allegedly a victim of “Love Jihad”, said on Saturday that she had embraced Islam on her own free will and wanted to go with her husband Shefin Jahan.
She also said she needed justice and that there was no compulsion from anyone in her changing the religion.
Hadiya, who will appear in the Supreme Court on Monday as directed by a bench headed by the Chief Justice, expressed her stand to mediapersons at the Nedumbassery airport before she was taken to New Delhi by a flight in the afternoon. It was for the first time that she appeared in public after the Kerala high court, in May this year, had annulled her marriage to Shefin Jahan and given her custody to her father K.M. Asokan of T.V. Puram, Vaikom, Kottayam district.
Hadiya was taken to the airport amidst tight security by the police, who tried to prevent her from speaking to the media. However, she managed to say a few words to the reporters before she was whisked away to the airport building. Chaotic scenes prevailed at the airport as mediapersons jostled to get close to Hadiya to get a response from her.
She later took a flight to Delhi accompanied by her father, mother Ponnamma and a team of police personnel headed by Kaduthurthy circle inspector Johnson, another woman circle inspector, two women civil police officers and a male civil police officer. Hadiya and others are expected to stay in Kerala House in Delhi.
The Kerala high court had annulled Hadiya’s marriage after her father approached the court expressing fears that his daughter will be taken abroad for alleged terrorist activities. Her husband Jehan, who had married her while she was studying in a homeopathic college in Salem last year, filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the HC verdict.
The apex court in October had ordered the authorities to produce Hadiya before it on November 27.
Hadiya and her parents were taken from T.V. Puram by the policemen around 2 pm, while their house was surrounded by hundreds of curious people and mediapersons from the morning itself. The police had provided unprecedented security at the village.
A number of police vehicles were lined up before their house and the cops tried to shield Hadiya from public view while she entered a police vehicle along with her parents.
Kottayam Special Branch DySP J. Santhosh Kumar, Vaikom DySP K. Subhash, Vaikom CI Binu, Sub-Inspector M. Sahil also accompanied the vehicle to the airport.
