National Commission for Women acting chairperson Rekha Sharma on Wednesday said that the Popular Front of India women’s wing president, AS Sainaba, converted several women in Kerala, apart from Hadiya, to Islam.
Rekha Sharma said that the parents of some of the women, who have been allegedly forcefully converted in the state, told her that Sainaba was behind the conversions.
“It was after meeting them that I understood that Sainaba was behind this. Not only Hadiya, but she converted other women too. I have met Sainaba. She complained that she is being framed by some media outlets,” she said.
Rekha Sharma said that she has forwarded 11 complaints of forceful conversion to the DGP. “I have got some other complaints also, but they are before the court now,” she told the media after meeting State Police Chief Loknath Behera at his office in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday morning.
In January 2016, Akhila, a student at a Salem college, left with her roommates to study Islam. However, her friend’s father Aboobacker refused to keep Akhila at their house and approached Sathya Sarani, an educational institution and conversion centre in Manjeri, Malappuram. Sathya Sarani sent Sainaba, a social worker, to meet Akhila. From January 7, Akhila started staying with Sainaba.
Akhila later converted to Islam and assumed the name Hadiya. Though the court allowed Hadiya to live with Sainaba, it had at one point questioned Sainaba’s source of income and how she was able to afford the expenses. Later, the court was angry at Hadiya’s ‘sudden’ wedding to Shafin Jahan at Sainaba’s behest and annulled it.
When TNM spoke to Sainaba, she denied the allegations and said that the visit of the Commission to the state is mysterious.
“In how many police stations in Kerala have there been cases against me? Not a single one. The Women’s Commission can check with any of the police stations. The investigation on the complaint against me is going on now. The Kerala police grilled me twice, the Crime Branch had also probed the case and now it is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency. NIA has also questioned me. The Kerala police has filed a report in the High Court. Everything is happening in a transparent manner,” Sainaba said.
She also questioned the real intention behind the NCW’s visit. “What she claimed was that she came to meet the victims of what they claim as forceful conversion. But the people she met are accused in the cases. She met the one who runs the controversial yoga centre at Thripunithura. In Ernakulam, she didn’t even conduct a proper sitting. About the complaints she is referring to, she doesn’t even know who the complainants are,” Sainaba alleged.
Sainaba even went to the extent of saying that she has now become a victim. “I have become a victim now. It has been going on for years. If not me, they will find someone else in the place of an opponent. How long can they cover the truth with untruth? Even I can give a complaint against someone, but would it last without any basis?” she asks.
But Sainaba candidly says that Rekha Sharma was open to listen to her when she met her with a complaint. “I met her at the sitting in Kozhikode with the complaint that some media outlets with vested interests have been targeting me and that a media propaganda is going on against me. She listened to me in the limited time and promised me to give me more time if I can go and meet her in Delhi,” Sainaba said.