Kerala witnesses the latest Love Jihad case in Kozhikode. Kakkadpoyil native Shahul Hameed (27) is in police custody for attempting to force the conversion of his 21-year-old Hindu wife to Islam. He also forced the conversion of the small baby. Since the Hindu women refused to comply with his forceful conversion attempt, he left the wife and child and fled. The girl alleged that Shahul Hameed tried to trap a Christian girl in Love Jihad.
The young wife is a Thrissur native. Shahul Hameed and the girl had worked together. They became friends and consequently a love affair developed between them. At last it culminated in their marriage. They got married at a wedding venue before the legendary Guruvayoor temple. Thereafter they lived together and the girl delivered a baby.
The girl says Shahul Hameed had never mentioned religious conversion before the marriage. But the situation changed after the wedding. The family members of Shahul Hameed started forcing her for religious conversion. After her delivery, they started to show their true colours. They said they would accept her and her child only after their conversion to Islam. They tried to take the girl and the child to Ponnani. Ponnani is the hub of religious conversion to Islam. This place in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district is infamous in connection with Love Jihad.
When the girl refused to comply with the pressure to convert, Shahul Hameed abandoned his wife and child and went away. His next step was to trap a Christian girl. His wife came to know about it and informed the police. Tiruvambadi Police in Kozhikode district registered a case against him. But the report suggests that the police registered the case without incorporating the girl’s complaint about the attempt at forced conversion.
The latest episode underlines, in bold letters, the existence of Love Jihad in Kerala. It once again speaks out the validity of the film “The Kerala Story”.
