Islamist outfit Popular Front of India has claimed that they spent Rs 1 crore in pursuing the case of Hadiya, formerly known as Akhila Asokan in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of India has recently upheld the marriage of Hadiya with Shafeen Jahan which was annulled by the Kerala High Court last year.
The state committee of PFI, in a press release, has claimed that they have paid Rs 93,85,000 as fees to various lawyers and another Rs 5,17,324 have been spent as travel expenses. The statement, issued by PFI general secretary C P Mohammad Basheer has also stated that a sum of Rs 50,000 was spent for paperwork at the office of lawyer Haris Beeran.
Several senior and high profile lawyers have appeared for Hadiya in the case. Congress leader Kapil Sibal has reportedly appeared seven times. Indira Jaising appeared four times and Dushyant Dave three times. Marsook Bafaqi appeared once.
Haris Beeran, KC Naseer and KP Mohammad Sherif have reportedly represented the case for free.
The press release claims that PFI collected funds for the case from the public and in a collection drive launched in October, the workers collected Rs 80,40,405. Some of the money was transferred to their bank accounts and the rest was taken from the working funds of the organisation, it states.
Hadiya, formerly Akhila, had married Shafin Jahan back in 2016 and had converted to Islam. Her marriage was annulled by the Kerala High Court following allegations of ‘love jihad’ by the NIA. NIA has long been alleging that the PFI is involved in counselling of Hindu girls to convert them to Islam. They also claim that the PFI uses confinement, allurement and even coercion as their tactics to convert.
After the Supreme Court verdict, Hadiya has gone to meet PFI leaders in Kerala. Though the SC had upheld her marriage stating the marriage between two consenting adults cannot be annulled, it had allowed the NIA to continue its probe into the ‘love jihad’ angle.
NEXT | As SC allows ‘Love Jehad’ probe| NIA exposes hypnotic conversion | ‘Confinement & coercion’ modus | But PFI cheers & celebrates | Hadiya ‘paraded’ for photo-op | PFI raises funds to fight case | Akhila to Hadiya via ‘hypnosis’?
Athar Khan debates on #HadiyaPFITrophy pic.twitter.com/RP8aXo6Jch
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Hadiya’s case has grabbed eyeballs nationwide from the very beginning. There were always rumours and questions on how they petitioners are being able to afford such high profile lawyers and meet legal expenses. In an interview with Opindia, Sadhvi Pragya Thakur’s lawyer Avinash Gupta too had echoed thoughts that there was a huge fund running of about Rs 100 crores to defend people who claim to have been falsely charged for terrorism on the basis of their religion. He had revealed that Sadhvi Pragya never got that kind of funds or activism to support her case.
PFI is an Islamist organisation and reportedly influenced by ISIS. It was banned by the Jharkhand government recently. They have been linked with several violent crimes in Karnataka and Kerala.
