Hadiya alias Akhila, a native of Vaikom in Kottayam district of Kerala, and who is now in the centre of a controversy over allegations that she had been forcibly converted to Islam, on Saturday refuted reports that she had married Sheffin Jahan under duress.
“Nobody forced me to embrace Islam. Sheffin Jahan is my husband and I want to live with him. I am a Muslim and I want justice,” she cried out to the media, even as she was being taken to the Cochin International Airport for her onward journey to New Delhi to appear before the Supreme Court on Monday. Although the police had barred her from interacting with the media, Hadiya shouted out these statements to the media persons jostling to take her sound bites. The 25-year-old homoepath, accompanied by her parents and a five-member police team, left for New Delhi later. Escorted by police personnel, Hadiya, along with her parents Asokan KM and Ponnamma, were shifted to the airport from their residence in Vaikom under heavy police cover.
A Division Bench of the Supreme Court Bench had ordered her production before it on Monday to ascertain whether her conversion to Islam and marriage to Sheffin Jahan was of her own volition. Official sources said the woman and her parents were likely to stay at the Kerala House in New Delhi.
The NIA probing the case had recorded the statements of Hadiya, her parents and Sheffin Jahan last week and filed a status report before the Supreme Court. Earlier in May, the Kerala High Court had annulled Hadiya’s marriage and ordered her to return to live with her parents in Kottayam. The case reached the Supreme Court when Sheffin Jahan filed an appeal against the annulment with the apex court.
