On Friday (15th December), the Kerala High Court dismissed KM Asokan’s habeas corpus petition after the prosecution informed the court that Hadiya, his daughter is currently residing with her second husband.
Hadiya rose to national prominence in 2016 after converting to Islam and marrying an Islamist who was member of the now banned terrorist group PFI. The court decided to dismiss the habeas corpus petition after reviewing the prosecution’s report, which indicated that Hadiya was not being held illegally.
As per the report by NDTV, the High Court learned that Hadiya’s first marriage had ended and that she had entered into a second marriage and was living with her second husband near Thiruvananthapuram.
Hadiya’s family had petitioned the Kerala High Court, saying that they had been unable to locate her for the past month due to her conversion to Islam and subsequent marriage to a man named Shafin Jahan.
Her father, Asokan, petitioned the High Court, alleging that his daughter was illegally detained by people, including her husband, who are allegedly members of the banned Popular Front of India.
Asokan had told the High Court that Hadiya had been untraceable to him and his wife for the previous month. He claimed that whenever they called their daughter, she either did not answer the phone or, on several occasions, the phone was turned off.
Asokan also stated that they went to her newly opened homeopathy clinic in Malappuram, but it was closed and the neighbors were unaware of it. Earlier, it was reported that Hadiya recently informed her mother about Shafin Jahan and said that they were no longer together and that she didn’t know where he was. Asokan then expressed his worries that his daughter had been held against her will by people connected to Shafin Jahan and Sainaba.
Hadiya converted to Islam while studying medicine in Coimbatore and married Jahan in 2016 when she was 25 years old. Soon after, Asokan filed a writ petition in the High Court, arguing that the conversion was coerced and that Jahan had ties to extremist organisations such as PFI. He also claimed she would be trafficked to Syria and join the Islamic State.
The marriage was then declared a ‘sham’ by the High Court. However, Jahan later petitioned the Supreme Court, which overturned the High Court’s decision in 2018.