KM Ashokan, father of Hadiya, 26-year-old Kerala woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man in 2016, has joined the BJP. KM Asokan had approached Court alleging his daughter was a victim of 'love jihad'.


The Supreme Court in March this year had restored the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman who had converted to Islam and entered into wedlock with a Muslim man, setting aside a Kerala high court order, and ruling that no court can interfere in the marriage of two consulting adults.


Pulling up the Kerala high court for annulling Hadiya's marriage to Shafin Jahan, the apex court observed that Article 226 gives the extraordinary power to high courts to protect the constitutional rights and not to scuttle them.


The high-profile case of alleged 'love jihad', a term used for Muslim men allegedly seducing and marrying Hindu women after making them convert to Islam, was being probed by anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency.


The court instructed the NIA to go ahead with its probe into alleged instances of love jihad without "touching the marriage".


In Kochi, Hadiya's father K M Asokan, who had claimed her daughter was "brainwashed" to convert, said he would consider moving a review petition in the Supreme Court against its judgement.He maintained that his daughter's marriage with Shafin Jahan was an act of "adjustment" done by a group.


File pic: Hadiya and her father KM Asokan