Kerala

Conversion of Kerala engineering student to Islam, police to probe

The order was based on a complaint filed by the girl's mother.

Written by : TNM Staff

The Kerala State Human Rights Commission on Wednesday asked the police to look into reports of alleged forced conversion of aeronautical engineering student Aparna Vijayan, a native of Thiruvananthapuram and submit its report by August 29.

Based on a complaint filed by her mother Mini Vijayan –a resident of Pangode in the capital city- Chairman Justice JB Koshy ordered the state police to probe into Mini’s claims of her 21-year old daughter being apparently abducted and forced to convert by a ‘mysterious set of people’ hardly a fortnight before her marriage.

Mini fears that they would persuade Aparna to join the Islamic state and wanted the government to save her daughter from the clutches of -whom she believes to be- Islamic radicals.

Aparna who had joined the aeronautical engineering course at a private college run by the Jewel Education Trust  in Ernakulam-Mini says- was apparently persuaded by her friends to move into a hostel run by a woman named Hasmin.

When Mini went to the hostel on March 30 to help her daughter move back home after completing her course and to prepare for her marriage that was to be held in April, she was supposedly told that none by the name of Aparna resided in the hostel.

It was only later that Mini managed to catch a glimpse of her daughter in CCTV images broadcast by the Theribiyath Islam Sabha Mukthar group based in Kozhikode.

After her parents twice filed a habeas corpus petition, Aparna was produced in the court by one Sumaya on both occasions. The court ruled in Aparna’s favour as she was an adult and chose to go with Sumaya on her own volition.

Mini believes that her daughter now lives at the Sathya Sarani Charitable Trust at Manjeri in Malappuram. The distraught mother pleaded with the authorities to get her daughter transferred to a government-run hostel.

According to Mini, if the authorities did not act promptly, her daughter could end up in the hands of the ISIS.

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