New Delhi, Aug 17: The Supreme Court today ordered the NIA to probe a 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 Kerala High Court had annulled the marriage, terming it as an instance of ‘love jihad’.
The apex court directed the National Investigation Agency to probe the incident under the supervision of a retired apex court judge, Justice R V Raveendran.
“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 Raveendaran,” a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and D Y Chandrachud 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 in the court to enable it to arrive at any conclusion in the matter.
Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh appearing for NIA said prima facie it appears that the woman’s conversion to Islam and her subsequent marriage to a Muslim was not an isolated incident and other such instances have come to the agency’s notice.
He claimed that in the other incidents, some players were allegedly found involved in converting young Hindu girls, who had some differences with their parents, to Islam.
Singh said the agency has so far found that the same people were behind the religious conversion of the women and their subsequent marriage.
“Role of one lady is under investigation. Prima facie it has been found that entities are common in these cases. This is the second case. There is a pattern. The girls first get converted and then they refuse to stay with their family members and subsequently their marriage is done. This matter requires further investigation and the agency will do as per court’s order,” Singh said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the husband Shafin Jahan who is the petitioner, said he can submit an affidavit to showcase U-turns made by NIA in several cases.
“It will be appropriate if the court calls the woman and talk to her,” he said while objecting to the NIA probe saying the crime branch was already investigating the case and it would be appropriate if it completed the investigation.
To this, the bench said it would certainly like to talk to the woman but not at this stage and it would be appropriate to first go through the inputs from NIA, Kerala Police and other stakeholders.
The issue had reached the apex court as Shafin Jahan had challenged the annulment of his marriage by the High Court which ordered the state police to probe such cases.
Jahan, who had married a Hindu woman last December, had moved the apex court after the Kerala High Court annulled his marriage, saying that it was an insult to the independence of women in the country.
The high court, while declaring the marriage as “null and void”, had described the case as an instance of ‘love jihad’ and ordered the state police to conduct probe into such cases.
Hindu woman marries Muslim; Supreme Court orders NIA probe
