Two Hindu women from Kerala who were examined by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have said they were “lured to convert to Islam but were not forced to do so.”
The NIA is yet to find any “terror” angle in the conversions, an official said.
The two women were examined as part of the Supreme Court-directed NIA probe in the case of Akhila Asokan alias Hadiya, a 25-year-old Hindu girl who converted to Islam and later married a Muslim man.
Akhila’s parents moved the Kerala High Court alleging that she was radicalised and converted to Islam and forcibly married.
The High Court annulled the marriage and Akhila’s husband Shafin Jahan moved the Supreme Court, which asked the NIA to investigate the ‘love jihad’ case. The case is currently being heard in the Supreme Court.
The NIA had asked the Kerala Police for details of forced conversions at Kozhikode’s Therbiyathul Islam Sabha, a religious centre authorised by the Kerala government where Akhila is alleged to have embraced Islam.
As reported by The Hindu earlier, the State police sent the details of 92 cases but the NIA said it was concentrating on 32 cases, which involved Hindu women.
“Last week, two women, both named Athira, were examined at the Kochi office. They told us that they had been lured to convert to Islam but no one forced them. In our report to SC in the Akhila case also we had said there was an organised effort behind the conversions. We are yet to come across any terror angle,” said an NIA official.
He added that one of the women, Athira Nambiar, who was earlier examined in 2016, wanted to convert to Islam to marry a Muslim man.
