Photo Credit: Indiatimes

Thiruvananthapuram: The 25-year-old woman involved in the alleged Kerala ‘Love Jihad’ case, who has been living with her parents after the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage, said she could be killed by her father soon.

Akhila Ashokan or Hadiya, in a 16-second video clip released by an activist, could be heard crying out for help.

“You need to get me out of here. I can be killed anytime, tomorrow or day after I am sure [sic]. I know my father is getting angry, he is hitting and kicking me,” said Akhila.

After the Kerala HC annulled her marriage with Shafin Jahan, 27, in May this year, she was ordered to return to her parents and live at her residence in Kottayam. She has been kept under the tight vigil of police and guards to make sure she does not run away.

The clip was shot by activist Rahul Eshwar, who had met the woman and her family in August.

Earlier Akhila's father Ashokan KM had alleged that his daughter’s husband forced her to convert to Islam. The Supreme Court later ordered the NIA to investigate if it was a case of ‘Love Jihad’. Hadiya’s father also alleged that Jahan had links to terror.

He claimed that his daughter was trapped by a racket that indoctrinates people and converts them to Islam.

“My daughter once told me that she wants to do sheep-farming in Syria... even the most liberal of fathers would be shocked to hear this,” the father told the court on August 4.

His lawyer told the Bench that such conversions and marriages were on the rise in Kerala.

Read: Kerala 'love jihad' case: A father can't control 24-year-old daughter, observes SC

“Radicalisation is rampant in Kerala... There is more here than what meets the eye. Your Lordships should order an independent investigation into each of these people who are behind what happened to my daughter and their affiliations,” the lawyer said in the court.

In response, Akhila’s husband Shafin Jahan said his wife converted to Islam long before their marriage and that she was an independent and devout woman. He had approached the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the girl’s father to produce her in court.

According to Jahan, his wife was being held in illegal confinement by her father following the May 24 Kerala High Court move to annul their marriage, calling it a case of ‘love jihad’.

Related: Kerala Love Jihad: SC to hear girl's father’s plea, won’t hear terror angle in case

The high court went by her father Ashokan KM's claim that Shafin Jahan had links to terror-outfits and targeted Akhila (Hadiya).

On appeal against this high court verdict by Akhila's husband, the Supreme Court had initially roped in the anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency to probe the circumstances of the marriage but also wondered how the high court could annul a marriage between two consenting adults. A 24-year-old woman "cannot be controlled by her father", Chief Justice Dipak Misra observed at the last hearing.



For right-wing groups in Kerala and elsewhere, the 24-year-old came to become the face of love jihad; the term coined by them to allege an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women via first romance and then marriage.



On a visit to Kerala last month, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had also cited this case to accuse the Left-led government of not taking steps to check a "dangerous trend like love jihad".