Hadiya's father KM Ashokan joins BJP in Kerala

KM Ashokan

KM Ashokan, father of 26-year-old Kerala woman Hadiya who married a Muslim man in 2016, has joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). 

A controversy had erupted after Hadiya, a homeopathic doctor who was earlier known as Akila Ashokan, converted to Islam in 2016 after her marriage with Shafin Jahan. 

Ashokan and his wife Ponnamma had approached the court alleging their daughter was a victim of 'love jihad'. On her father's claim, the Kerala High Court had accepted that Shafin Jahan has links with terror-outfits. 

The Kerala High Court annulled her marriage on charges of 'love jihad' and put her under the protective custody of her parents. Later, a video emerged showing Hadiya crying for help. "You need to get me out...I will be killed anytime," she said in the video. 

The Supreme Court later set aside the Kerala High Court order and restored the marriage. Allowing Hadiya to walk free, the SC bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra directed the Salem`s Sivaraj Homoeopathic Medical Colleges and Research Institute to allow her to complete her house surgeon internship.