The father of a 22-year-old student from Kannur in Kerala has filed a habeas corpus in Kerala High Court alleging that his daughter has been forcefully converted and married by a man named Fahad.
He stated in his petition that his daughter studying in Chennai’s SRM College, has been missing since June 8. He alleged that a man named Fahad had befriended her. He feared that Fahad may have taken her without her will and forced her to convert to Islam and marry him.
The father, Varghese Abraham, alleged that his daughter, Benita Grace Varghese, used to call him up two-three times in a day. But after 7:45 pm on June 8, he has not heard from here and her phone is also switched off.
The father said that after he was unable to contact his daughter, he contacted the hostel authorities. The hostel authorities told him that his daughter Banita had left the hostel on June 8 saying she was going to her cousin’s house.
The victim’s father said that the next day at 9:30 pm, he received a voice note from a mobile number saying she is going with a person whom he did not know. The father said that they later learnt that the mobile number from which the voice note was sent belonged to a person named Fahad.
The father recognised this person as a Muslim man his daughter befriended when she was in Kuwait before moving to Chennai for higher studies.
Fahad lived as an NRI in Kuwait where he met Benita Grace Varghese and the two became close friends. The family does not know much about him except that he is a resident of Mattannur in Kannur, the petition read.
Varghese Abraham expressed doubts that Fahad has taken his daughter to Mattannur without her consent. There, the people of his community have forcibly converted her and got her married to Fahad against her will, he said.
The petition stated that the petitioner is an NRI in Kuwait. His daughter too was in Kuwait but moved to Chennai for higher studies.