Hadiya's father moves court again, this time alleging 'illegal detention'

The father of Hadiya, the Kerala woman whose religious conversion and subsequent marriage to a Muslim man five years ago had reached the doors of the Supreme Court and stirred conversations around a woman's right to choose her partner, approached the Kerala high court on Friday claiming that his daughter is being illegally detained by her husband.

- Vishnu Verma

Hadiya, 31, told a local TV channel in Thiruvananthapuram that she was safe and secure and that her father's allegations were untrue. KM Asokan filed a habeas corpus petition in the HC on Friday and sought that his daughter be produced in court. He said in his petition that his attempts to reach Hadiya over phone were unsuccessful and that a homeopathy clinic she was running had shut. "The petitioner apprehends that she has been moved to the illegal custody of the place and control of the respondents 3 and 4. Now the detenu is in the illegal custody of the persons under collusion and connivance of the 4th and 6th respondents. So the detenu is to be released at the earliest," the plea said.