The mother of a girl from Kerala who allegedly converted to Islam, got married to a Muslim and is now believed to be in the Islamic State-controlled Khorasan province of Afghanistan has moved the Supreme Court, seeking an “extensive investigation” into the phenomenon of ‘love jihad’ in the southern State.
Bindu Sampath, whose daughter Fatima alias Nimisha is believed to have fled to Afghanistan when she was seven months pregnant to join the jihad of the IS, wants to be impleaded in the Hadiya case.
Ms. Sampath said the case of Hadiya, which concerns that of a 24-year-old girl who converted and subsequently married a Muslim, is that of indoctrination and transforming vulnerable girls from other religious communities into “radicalised jihadis.”
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“The situation in Kerala seems to be grim — the most number of people joining IS from India are so far from Kerala,” Ms. Sampath alleged.
However, the Kerala government has filed an affidavit denying any need for an NIA investigation.
Her application for impleadment was mentioned by her advocate Aishwarya Bhati before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The court allowed Ms. Bhati to file the application.
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‘Sinister mission’
“There are multiple reports coming from across India reporting a similar tactic being used — the Jihad Romeos are given cell phones, bikes and fashionable clothes to accomplish their sinister mission. They have two weeks to find a girl of another religion and six months to convert her to Islam. If the girl shows no interest within two weeks, they are to leave her and find another,” the application alleged.
“For every conversion, the men receive a monetary reward — usually ₹5 to 7 lakh — with the money for love jihad coming from a variety of organisations, many foreign-based. If a recruiter does marry his convert, he is encouraged to have four children with her,” it said.
The application said it was imperative that national security agencies like the NIA and the Intelligence Bureau are tasked at the earliest with investigating these incidents, identifying culprits, drawing out trends and addressing the issue quickly before any serious damage occurs.
“Truly, no one wants another Mumbai-like terror attack,” the application said.
Ms. Sampath rejected the argument that cases like that of her daughter or Hadiya are “isolated, independent and individual instances of crime.” She said they are rather a “motivated scheme of operation.”
She described herself as a “hapless mother… who has not been able to get any relief or respite in her crusade to secure the well-being of her daughter.”
Noting that her son is an Army officer, she said she needed help to rescue her daughter, her Muslim husband and her granddaughter from harm’s way or they may lose their lives in the U.S. bombings.