The investigation conducted by National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the interfaith marriages of 11 couples in Kerala came to an end on Thursday after the agency failed to find any evidence of ‘love jihad’ — a term coined by right-wing groups to stigmatise interfaith marriages.
According to a Hindustan Times report, officials familiar with the matter said that there was no evidence of a criminal intention or design to convert men or women in any of the cases.
A senior agency official, on condition of anonymity, told HT, “The NIA is not supposed to file any further report in this regard in the Supreme Court. As far as the NIA is concerned, the matter stands closed as the agency has not found any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or the woman was coerced to convert.”
NIA had picked up 11 out of 89 cases of interfaith marriages in Kerala for examination of so-called ‘love jihad’.
“At least one among the 11 marriages under examination was purely a matter of relationship gone sour. In most of the other cases we found that a similar set of people and organisations associated with Popular Front of India (PFI) were involved in helping either the man or the woman involved in a relationship to convert to Islam, but we didn’t find any prosecutable evidence to bring formal charges against these persons under any of the scheduled offences of the NIA, like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” added the official.
PFI’s legal advisor KP Muhammer Shareef called ‘love-jihad’ a “sinister design cooked up by right wing forces” to “target the Muslim community at large.”
“Umpteen investigations and enquiries conducted by various agencies have now found the allegation of love jihad is obnoxious, fictitious and without any scintilla of evidence,” Sharif told HT.
The investigation was taken up after the much controversial Hadiya case.
Hadiya, a 24-year-old woman, had married Shafin Jahan, after converting into Islam. Soon after, the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage following a petition filed by her father. However, the Supreme Court overturned High Court’s decision and validated the marriage, stating that both man and woman were consenting adults.