It's a different case, rules Kerala High Court

Kochi: The order of the division bench of Kerala High Court annulling the marriage of a 24-year old woman states that her case was different from the usual ones that the courts heard in the past. “This not a case of a girl falling in love with a boy of a different religion and wanting to get married to him,” the court said in its order on Wednesday. “Such situations are common and we are familiar with them. In all such cases, this court has been consistent in accepting the choice of the girl. However, the case is different." The court passed the order while considering a habeas corpus plea filed by the father of the 24-year Hindu girl who alleged that efforts were on to conduct a fake marriage of his daughter without her consent and free will to a Muslim associated with an extremist organisation in order to hood-wink the police and others and to take her out of the country.

The court found that the girl’s marriage had been conducted during the pendency of the proceedings of the habeas corpus plea without informing it. The court held the lady who acted as the guardian and her husband had no authority to give the woman in marriage to anyone. “Though it is repeatedly stated that the woman has converted to Islam, there is not a document on record to prove it,” the court said.   The court observed that the girl had not impressed it as a person who was capable of taking a firm and independent decision on her own. “She appears to be under the control of someone else,” the court said.  “It is evident that she has been indoctrinated and influenced by persons whose identities have not been ascertained.”

The police could have unearthed materials, had they probed the call details of the persons. “No such attempt has been made in the present case,” it observed. Taking serious note of the antecedents of the person who married her, the court said he was an admin of a WhatsApp group in which Mancy Buraqui, who was arrested by the NIA on October 2, 2016 on the allegation that he had connection with the extremist organisation Islamic State, was also a member. The bench observed that the person is “only a stooge who has been assigned to play the role of going through a marriage ceremony.”

“In the present state of affairs, it is absolutely unsafe to let the woman in the case free to do as she likes,” the order said. “A girl aged 24 years is weak and vulnerable, capable of being exploited in many ways. The court is concerned with the welfare of the girl of her age. The court let her parents to take custody of the woman.” The court questioned the source of money involved in the case and asked the police to conduct a probe. It also directed the state police chief to take over and conduct a comprehensive investigation into two cases in connection with the forced religious conversion. "Investigate the activities of organisations which are involved in the cases. Such investigation should be completed as expeditiously as possible and the persons who were found to be guilty should be brought to the book," the court observed.