The case is reminiscent of an anti-terror agency investigation into Hadiya's marriage to Shafine Jahan, in which no evidence of any conspiracy was found.
New Delhi - A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is visiting Bangladesh to investigate an alleged "love jihad" case, NIA sources have said in New Delhi. "An NIA team has reached Bangladesh to collect details in the alleged Love Jihad case filed in August last year," he told IANS.
The visit comes a week after the NIA questioned the woman on WhatsApp. The agency found no evidence that interracial marriage was "love jihad", a term the group uses to describe certain relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women, but one that courts and the central government do not officially recognize Huh.
The woman told the NIA that she was happy with her husband and voluntarily converted to Islam, Hindustan Times quoted people familiar with the development on condition of anonymity.
The NIA has accused Islamic preacher Zakir Naik and two American preachers of Pakistan origin in an FIR related to the high-profile case.
The father of a Chennai-based businesswoman complained in May last year that she was kidnapped in London by Nafees, the son of former Prime Minister Khalid Zia's senior leader of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Sardar Shekhawat Hussain.
The woman's father alleged that she was forcibly taken to Bangladesh after being radicalized and converted to Islam. The woman studied in London with Nafees. The Tamil Nadu Police asked the NIA to investigate the matter as it had international implications.
After recording her parents' statements, the country's leading anti-terrorism agency contacted her on WhatsApp. "During interrogation (on WhatsApp), he told us that he voluntarily got married after converting to Islam and was not forced to marry. She said she is happy, "an NIA officer not named Hindustan Times.
The officials above said that their investigation into the matter was "more or less" and that a closure report would be filed in the court after the other verification was completed.
Now reports have come that the NIA team is visiting Bangladesh. The source told IANS that the team would question the woman whether she married on her own or was abducted. Anti-terror investigation agency will also interrogate Nafees and his politician father.
This is not the first time that the NIA is enthusiastically pursuing an alleged "love jihad" case, despite no evidence of any conspiracy being found in previous investigations.
The NIA's investigation into interfaith marriages in Kerala, including Hadiya's marriage to Shafeen Jahan, which became a reason, revealed that there was no coercion to marry brides and convert them to Islam. It investigated several cases in Kerala where it was alleged that the woman was forced to convert to Islam. The Supreme Court also rejected an order of the Kerala High Court in 2018 that announced Hadiya's marriage to Jehana, stating that the right of a person to marry a person of her choice was Article 21 ( Right to life and liberty).
The Central Government has stated in Parliament that there was no word like "Love Jihad" in the law. Union Minister of State for Home Affairs. Kishan Reddy said in Lok Sabha in February 2020: “Article 25 of the Constitution provides for freedom of publicity, practice and promotion of religion for public order, morality and health. Various courts have upheld this view, including the Kerala High Court. The term 'love jihad' is not defined under the existing laws.
However, two recent stringent laws in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh seek to clamp down on inter-relations, which allegedly use marriage as a greed to force Hindu women to convert to Islam. Stringent laws do not use the words "love jihad", and the UP law has already been challenged in the Supreme Court.
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