Love jehad now a battle in court

Acting upon a habeas corpus petition,the Kerala High Court sought reports from the state and the Centre on the alleged forced conversions and was told by state authorities that there were reasons to suspect a concerted attempt to persuade girls to change their religion after they fall in love with Muslim boys. DGP Jacob Punnoose said in his report that though the police had received only two complaints regarding forced conversions under the guise of love,Some groups are actively working among youngsters encouraging conversions. The young men who are out to trap the girls were said to be receiving funds from abroad or indirectly for purchasing clothes and vehicles,and for availing legal help. However,the Centre held that its agencies had not chanced upon any organised attempt for conversion under love jehad.

Intelligence sources said a common factor running through the cases the police investigated was the suspicious haste shown to convert the girls to Islam. There were cases in which the Muslims youths threatened to quit the affair if the girls were not ready to embrace Islam. Right-wing Muslim organisations had ensured ground support for the youths to keep the girls in custody until the protests petered out, sources said.

Muslim organisations were also agitated over the use of the term love jehad which hit the headlines in the wake of directive of HC judge K T Sankaran,who sought a probe into the forced conversions. Later,the judge clarified that he had only quoted the term appearing in the police report on the two complaints filed by parents of the girls. The judge also refused to restrain the media from using the term since it had appeared in the police report.

In the name of love Sreya,a native of Thiruvananthapuram,fell in love with Muhammed Shah,who had been her senior in a college in central Kerala. Shah had also maintained a relationship with Sino,a Christian girl,who had been Sreyas classmate. According to the depositions of the girls given to the police,early this year,Shah began to persuade the girls to convert to Islam and later threatened to snap relations if they were not willing to do so.

Sreya planned to elope with Shah and one July morning received a missed call as a signal to come out of her house. She was taken to the house of one Khadeeja,organiser of the womens wing of PFI in Kochi. The next day,Sreya was taken to the house of one Haneefa Haji in Malappuram,accompanied by PFI activists and was later shifted to another house. Meanwhile,Sino was also brought to the house in Malappuram.

The girls were taken to an advocates office in Kozhikode,where two deeds of agreements for marriage were executed; one between Sreya and Shah,another between Sino and Siraj,a friend of Shah. Sino was forced to sign the marriage deed with the bus conductor and they both were taken back to Malappuram. After a police hunt,the girls were produced before the High Court,which pronounced the marriages invalid.

For Santhosh Bhat,28,a school drop out, conversion came in the attractive package of a Gulf job offer.

Bhat worked as a painter and his contractor Shareef enticed him with a job offer in the Gulf if he converted to Islam. A gullible Bhat obeyed and was taken to a conversion institution in Malappuram, says his father Ganesh.

Bhat was later taken to a south Kerala destination and asked to marry a woman,who had been converted to Islam. Bhat mustered the courage to inform his family about the experiences he had undergone and managed to flee.

Hindu organisations have offered protection for Santhosh. We are happy that we could take back our son, said Ganesh.

Manoharan Nairs daughter Vinaya was in love with a Muslim youth Abdul Hakeem and eloped with him earlier this year. However,the very night of the elopement,Nair got a distress call from Vinaya. She told me that she was trapped and pleaded with me to rescue her, said Nair. The Nairs rushed to Kochi on the same night and brought back Vinaya. However,Vinaya soon disappeared.

For the next two weeks,Vinayas whereabouts remained unknown. When Nair filed a habeas corpus patition in the HC,Hakeem produced Vinaya in the local police station. The court allowed them to live together,when they produced documents of a marriage. She appeared brain-washed. He friends told me that Hakeem had blackmailed her using some pictures, said Nair.