NEW DELHI: The marriage of Kerala woman Hadiya Shafin Jahan, previously known as Akhila Ashokan, was not a case of 'love jihad', one of the officials of the National Investigation Agency that ended a probe into Hadiya's conversation said on Thursday. According to a Hindustan Times report, the NIA has not recovered any evidence of a larger criminal design that could lead to prosecution of this and some other cases examined by the agency.

A senior agency official was quoted by the HT as saying “The NIA is not supposed to file any further report in this regard in the Supreme Court. As far as the NIA is concerned, the matter stands closed as the agency has not found any evidence to suggest that in any of these cases either the man or the woman was coerced to convert.”

The NIA was examining 11 cases of interfaith marriages out of the 89 that were before the Kerala authorities in Kerala as part of its probe into cases of "love jihad". According to a NewsMinute report, there were at least four interfaith marriages where Hindu men embraced Islam among these 11 cases and in the rest of the cases, Hindu women married Muslim men.

Hadiya, 24, embraced Islam and married Shafin Jahan, a Muslim. Hadiya's father alleged that she was forcibly converted by groups with links to terrorist outfits. Later, the Kerala High Court in May 2017 had nullified her marriage to Jahan and she was given in the custody of her father, an order set aside by the Supreme Court in March this year.

However, the top had told the NIA, which is investigating the matter, to continue with its probe into any criminality in the marriage, but not to intrude into it.

Pronouncing the order, then Chief Justice Misra had said the high court should not have annulled the marriage, following a Habeas Corpus petition, by exercising its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution.

Chief Justice Misra said: "We hold that the high court should not have annulled the marriage between Shafin Jahan and Hadiya."

The order also referred to Hadiya personally appearing before the Supreme Court on November 27 and admitting to her marriage with Shafin Jahan, who had challenged the High Court order that nullified the marriage.