advertisement
Her parents feel relieved that Akhila is back home now. As the complex saga of the young woman, cutting across religions and personal relationships, stands scrutinised at the Supreme Court of India, Akhila alias Hadiya, is at home with her parents after nearly 18 months. “She has now started speaking to us freely. She had completely clammed up a few months ago. She wears the hijab on a few days, doesn’t wear it on some. We don’t question her on her choice anymore. It’s up to her. The case is sub-judice, so we never discuss it with her”, 57-year-old KM Ashokan tells TNM over phone from his residence in Kottayam district of Kerala.
Her case has now reached the top echelons of Indian judiciary, sparking debates on jurisdiction and power of the courts in the personal lives of adults.
After the High Court admitted a second habeas corpus filed by Ashokan in August 2016, the court suddenly nullified Akhila's marriage to Shafin Jahan. The court had taken umbrage to the fact that the wedding was registered without the knowledge of the court while the case was still on.
Why has a marriage between two adults caused such havoc? On what basis did the High Court of Kerala nullify their marriage, despite Hadiya claiming that she had done so on her own free will? Is it right for the Supreme Court to order an NIA probe into their marriage?
Born to Hindu parents in Vaikkom in Kottayam district, Akhila joined a college in Salem to pursue Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery. On 6 January 2016, Akhila went missing from a house in Selam, where she was staying with her friends Faseena and Jaseena.
The family filed the police complaint after they were informed that Akhila went to her college on 6 January , dressed in a hijab. However, despite the police case, Akhila could not be traced.
Following this, Akhila's father Ashokan filed a habeas corpus petition at the Kerala High Court. Akhila appeared before the court on 19 January, and told the court about the circumstances under which she left her home and parents.
She told the court that she had been following Islam for three years, without formally announcing the change of faith. She told the court that she had left her home on 2 January 2016, because her father had seen her pray the Islamic way, and had warned her against doing so.
Akhila then went straight to Jaseena's and Faseena's house in Perinthalmanna in Malappuram district.
Their father Aboobacker took her to a religious institution named KIM, where she was refused admission. Akhila was then taken to the Therbiathul Islam Sabha, an Islamic study centre, in Kozhikode.
According to Akhila, soon after, Aboobacker refused to keep her at his residence and approached a third institution named Sathya Sarani, an educational institution and conversion centre in Manjeri, Malappuram. Sathya Sarani sent Sainaba, a social worker, to meet Akhila. From 7 January, Akhila started staying with Sainaba.
Akhila's father alleged that Sathya Sarani was involved in several illegal and forced conversions. But on 25 January, the Kerala High Court dismissed the habeas corpus petition, after finding that Akhila was not in illegal confinement.
Six months after the Kerala High Court dismissed Ashokan's habeas corpus petition, the 57-year-old filed another petition. This time, he alleged that efforts were being made to transport Akhila out of the country and were rushing to get her married off to a Muslim man.
After this interim order was passed, the police found that Akhila had shifted from Sainaba’s house to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, Akhila and Sainaba approached the court and asked for their case to be taken up soon.
When the case was heard, Akhila told the court that Sainaba was her guardian and that she did not want to go back to her parents. The court sent her to a hostel in Ernakulam after her father expressed concerns over her safety.
When the court interacted with Akhila in person in the month of September, she told the court that she was being lodged in the hostel for no fault of hers and that she should be allowed to reside in a place of her choice.
In November, the court expressed concern over Akhila continuing to live with Sainaba and sought their source of income.
In the next hearing on 19 December, the court asked her to complete her course and shift to the college hostel. Akhila agreed to the court’s condition. Akhila's father was asked to appear before the court on 21 December with her certificates so that Akhila could resume her studies.
What happened next angered the court.
On 21 December, Akhila appeared before the court accompanied by "a stranger."
The court was not convinced and questioned why the court had been kept in the dark regarding the marriage.
The court observed that the marriage took place on 19 December, on the same day the court had heard the case. The court also raised several doubts regarding the manner in which the wedding was held. The judges were livid with what had happened.
"The question that now crops up is whether the marriage that has been allegedly performed is not a device to transport her out of the country. We are not aware of the identity of the person who is said to have married her, nor his antecedents," the court said.
Judges K Surendra Mohan and Abraham Mathew asked the following questions:
"As per the Indian tradition, the custody of an unmarried daughter is with her parents, until she is properly married off," the court observed.
The court said that it was dissatisfied with the manner in which the marriage was conducted and sent Akhila to SNV Sadanam, a ladies’ hostel in Ernakulam, ordering that she shall have no access to mobile phones.
After the information about Akhila's marriage to Shafin came to light, the court asked the Deputy SP of Perinthalmanna to submit a report on Shafin.
A native of Kollam, the college graduate said he wanted to take Akhila to the Gulf, where his mother lives. In January 2017, the police told the High Court that Shafin had links with Sathya Sarani and that he was an accused in a criminal case. He was also part of a WhatsApp group called ‘Thanal’, run by the core committee of SDPI Kerala, the police said.
The Government Pleader submitted that although Shafin was an active user of Facebook, disclosing every minor detail of his daily life, he hadn't shared anything about his marriage to Akhila.
It was only on 10 January, when a Malayalam daily reported on the case, that he shared it on Facebook.
On 24 May 2017, the same bench of the Kerala High Court that had in March 2017 allowed Akhila to lead the life of her choice, called her wedding a sham.
The court concluded that Shafin was "only a stooge who has been assigned to play the role of going through a marriage ceremony."
“In the first place, it is not normal for a young girl in her early 20s, pursuing a professional course, to abandon her studies and to set out in pursuit of learning an alien faith and religion. The normal youth is indifferent towards religion and religious studies. Though the possibility of genuine interest in the study of religion on the part of any person cannot be ruled out, such inclination is in the first place out of the ordinary. Though the alleged detenue in this case is stated to have set out to study Islam, her study has been confined to merely attending a course of two months duration conducted by the 6th respondent (Sathya Sarani). She does not appear to have conducted any study thereafter,” the court observed.
The court, in what has stunned legal experts and jurists, nullified the marriage, and sent Akhila back to the custody of her parents. Two months after the Kerala HC nullified their marriage, Shafin approached the Supreme Court with a special leave petition against the HC order.
Hearing the case, the apex court took note of the observations of the HC that there were radical groups influencing and converting young girls. Shafin came packing heavy legal firepower at the Supreme Court – Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaisingh were representing him.
While Sibal argued that Hadiya was not a child, the court asked whether she knew Shafin, the man she got married to.
After asking the Kerala government to produce all the documents related to the case, the SC on 16 August ordered an NIA probe into the incident. The next hearing of the case will be fixed as soon as the NIA submits its report.
Thousands of kilometers away in their home in Kottayam, Ashokan hopes that the apex court gives a favourable judgement in the case.
"We shall accept whatever the court says. What else can we do?" he asks.
The HC order was, however, met with stiff opposition from Muslim groups in the state, with the Muslim Ekopana Samithi even calling for a hartal in Ernakulam against the HC's verdict.
Popular TV news panelist Rahul Easwar, who has been in constant touch with Akhila's family in the past few months, tells TNM that while her parents now accept that their daughter can practice a religion of her choice, they do not want her to leave them.
Many read the case as a clear violation of rights, and arguments have been made in the public domain that this is about Akhila’s personal rights, and that the courts have no right to nullify the marriage of two consenting adults.
"Agree that there is a court case going on. But look at the kind of lawyers Akhila, who claimed to have been earning Rs 2000 a month, hired for herself. Look at the kind of lawyers who are representing Shafin at the SC. How can they afford it? Where is the money coming from?"
Advocate C Rajendran, who represented Akhila’s parents at the Kerala HC, says that the marriage was purely an interference with the administration of justice.
The public discourse in Kerala too is seemingly accommodating of the argument that the case is not just about the marriage.
What further seems to have convinced Akhila’s parents and her supporters is that this is not the first such case.
"There are so many similar cases, like the case of Thiruvananthapuram-native Nimisha. The court had dismissed the habeas corpus filed by her mother and later she went to Afganistan to join ISIS. In Akhila's case, this was the second time her father approached the court.
She converted and then while the case was going on, got married to a total stranger, Rajendran says,“This is about radicalisation. She, like Nimisha, has been brainwashed with the stories of horrors of hell and lured into converting with the promise of heaven."
“I agree that there have been instances from Kasargod and Thiruvananthapuram where women converted to Islam and are said to have gone to ISIS. But do we have conclusive evidence to prove it? I am not contradicting the court's observation that there is an organisational movement, but we shouldn't look at every case with that prejudice. Is there any proof for this organisational movement? I feel it is exaggerated,” says Karassery.
(The story was originally produced by The News Minute)
(#TalkingStalking: Have you ever been stalked? Share your experience with The Quint and inspire others to shatter the silence surrounding stalking. Send your stories to editor@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)