NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a probe into an alleged instance of " love jihad " after being informed by the National Investigation Agency that the case under scrutiny did not appear to be an isolated one and was similar to two other cases reported in Kerala.The court asked NIA to probe the marriage of Shafin Jahan and Akhila Asokan under the supervision of retired SC judge Justice R V Raveendran to examine the alleged indoctrination and conversion to Islam of the girl and if this was part of an organised "love jihad".A bench of CJI J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud brushed aside strong objections from Shafin who had married Akhila. The Kerala HC had suspected the union to be a case of love jihad and annulled the sudden marriage of Akhila who converted to Islam and became Hadija after her wedding.The bench initially appeared reluctant to order a probe but did so after being informed by additional solicitor general Maninder Singh that the NIA, after preliminary scrutiny of evidence collected so far by the crime branch of Kerala Police, opined that "this (Akhila's conversion to Islam and marriage to a Muslim) does not appear to be an isolated case".The controversy over "love jihad" where non-Muslim women are lured into relationships with the alleged objective of conversion to Islam - often after elopement - has become a political issue with BJP taking it up and the debate taking on communal overtones with Muslims groups countering the charges.Citing NIA's assessment, Singh said: "A pattern emerges from two similar cases that have been reported from Kerala. In both cases, the persons who play a role in approaching young girls help them in conversion, give them shelter and get them married to Muslims, appear to be common. They seem to approach young girls who appear distressed because of disagreement with parents."However, Shafin's counsel -- senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Indira Jaising -- succeeded in convincing the bench to interview Akhila, whose custody has been entrusted to her parents and made out of bounds for Shafin. They also got the bench to change its initial choice in retired SC judge K S Radhakrishnan to supervise the NIA probe by saying the Kerala-based retired judge would not be the appropriate person in an 'inter-faith' issue.After the Kerala government, through senior advocate V Giri, said it had no objection if the court desired an NIA probe into the larger picture, Sibal and Jaising opposed it vehemently. When the bench said it did not understand why anyone would object to an independent investigation, Sibal said: "I don't want to comment on NIA's independence given its flip-flops in investigations and prosecution in recent cases."Sibal and Jaising raised the pitch for the judges interviewing the girl. "She is not a weak girl to be indoctrinated. She is a strong girl and the court can find this out by talking to her in chamber."Sibal and Jaising said two other judges of the same HC had earlier found nothing wrong with her behaviour. "So, why not interview the girl. If after talking to her the bench felt that there should be NIA probe, I have no objection," Sibal said.When the court said talking to the girl when NIA probe is pending would be "pre-judging" the issue, Sibal said ordering NIA probe without talking to the girl would amount to pre-judging the issue.The bench frowned at the argument and said: "It is you who is preventing an independent investigation and accusing us of pre-judging the issue. We'll talk to her when we feel it is necessary and not when you want us to."