Embraced Islam of my free will, Hadiya tells SC
NEWDELHI: Hadiya, the 26-year-old woman who is at the centre of an alleged love jihad controversy, on Tuesday filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court (SC) saying that she has embraced Islam of her free will and wants to live with her husband Shafin Jahan.
“Shafin Jahan is my husband, I want to continue to live as wife of my beloved husband and I embraced Islam and married him on my own free will. I further pray that this Court may be kind enough to appoint my husband as (my) guardian” reads Hadiya’s affidavit in the apex court.
The affidavit comes just two days ahead of the crucial hearing in the SC on her husband Shafin Jahan’s plea against the Kerala high court order annulling their marriage.
Hadiya has also asserted in her affidavit that despite SC orders freeing her from her parents’ custody, she continues to be under police surveillance.
“Even now I am under police surveillance. I most humbly pray that my entire liberty may kindly be restored to me,” she added.
Hadiya, born Akhila, converted to Islam in January 2016. She married Jahan in December of the same year. In May 2017, the Kerala high court annulled the marriage in a highly controversial order. In August Jahan filed a petition in the Supreme Court.
On November 27 last year, the apex court freed Hadiya from her parents’ custody and sent her to college to pursue her studies, even as she pleaded to be allowed to go with her husband.
In January this year , the Supreme Court said her marriage can’t be questioned.
In her affidavit Hadiya has hit out at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) alleging that the agency treated her as a terrorist. Hadiya has also requested the court to consider granting her compensation for the ‘harassment’ she has suffered at the hands of police and the NIA
She has also attacked NIA saying that the agency had launched a “baseless and malicious propaganda that I am mentally not sound, that I have connection with IS”.