Supreme Court directs NIA to probe love jihad in Kerala

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take up the probe into the Kerala ‘love jihad’ controversy in which the marriage between a Muslim youth and a Hindu girl converted to Islam was nullified by the Kerala high court.

A bench of chief justice J.S. Khehar and justice D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order after additional solicitor general Maninder Singh informed the court that there was prima facie material to establish that some extremist organisations linked with the banned SIMI (Students Islamic Movement of India) were engaged in the conversion of certain Hindu girls into Islam and their gradual radicalisation with organisations like the ISIS.

The alleged conversions had gained the sobriquet of “love jihad” in Kerala and the boy Shafin Jahan moved the apex court for production of his wife Akhila alias Hadiya.

The bench took note of the NIA’s preliminary findings submitted in a sealed cover and entrusted the probe to the NIA, even as senior counsel Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising strongly opposed the court passing any such order.

They denied the charges and insisted on the court to summon the girl Akhila to verify the claims of her father that she was radicalised.

The bench however, appointed former Supreme Court judge justice R.V. Raveendran to oversee the investigation for allaying fears of the petitioner of a possible bias and listing of the case after the NIA submits its probe report.

As Mr Sibal kept insisting that the bench to verify whether she was radicalised as being alleged should personally examine the girl, the CJI referred to the recent spate of suicides in the country by children and teenagers after being addicted to the online suicide game “Blue Whale.” “Have you ever heard about the Blue Whale challenge? Such things can do people to do anything,” justice Khehar told Mr Sibal.

The ASG said the case of conversion and marriage of the woman in question is “not an isolated case and we have come across another case with a similar pattern involving the same people who are acting as instigators”. Senior advocate V. Giri, appearing for the Kerala police, said that the state police wants to withdraw from the probe and was ready to hand over all the probe documents to the NIA.” But let the investigation agency complete its investigation first,” he said.