No ‘love jihad’: NIA on Chennai-b’desh couple
SHE SAID SHE WAS HAPPY WITH HER HUSBAND AND HAD WILLINGLY CONVERTED WITHOUT ANY FORCE IN THE MARRIAGE
NEW DELHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) recently questioned on Whatsapp an Indian woman from a Chennai business family who converted to Islam to marry the son of a Bangladeshi politician after meeting him in London, where they studied together, to find out if their marital union was a case of what some Hindu groups describe as “love jihad”.
The agency did not find any evidence that the interfaith marriage was “love jihad”, a term groups use to describe some relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women, but one that the courts and the Union government do not officially recognise. The woman said she was happy with her husband and had willingly converted to Islam, people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.
Her father, a Chennai-based businessman, complained in May last year that she was abducted in London by the son of a leader of the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and a former member of Parliament. He alleged that she had been forcibly taken to Bangladesh after she was radicalised and converted to Islam. The woman studied in London with the Bangladesh politician’s son.
Tamil Nadu Police asked the NIA to investigate the matter because it had international ramifications. After recording her parents’ statement, the central anti-terror agency contacted her on Whatsapp. “During the questioning (over Whatsapp), she told us that she married him willingly after converting to Islam and has not been forced at all in the marriage. She said she is happy,” said an NIA officer who didn’t want to be named.
Officials cited above said their probe in the case was “more or less over” and a closure report will be filed in court after other verifications are completed.
This is not the first time that an NIA probe of a “love jihad” angle has not yielded any evidence of a conspiracy.
An NIA spokesperson said the case is under investigation.
“A complaint of kidnapping was filed last year and we had registered a case,” said Chennai commissioner of police, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, unable to recall the sections under which the case was registered. “Since we transferred the case to the NIA, we aren’t aware of further details or the present status of the investigation.”
Another senior official of Tamil Nadu police who did not wish to be named said, “When we get a complaint of such a nature which has international and religious ramifications, we don’t investigate.” “Our stand is to transfer it to the appropriate agency and in a case like this it is the NIA.”