Days after the Kerala State Human Rights Commission asked the police to probe in to the alleged forced conversion of aeronautical engineering student Aparna Vijayan based on her mother's complaint, Aparna herself denied the same.
In a press meet held on Friday by the Satyasarani Charitable Trust at Manjeri in Malappuram where she now resides, Aparna -now known as Ayisha- said that she had been following Islam since class 8.
According to media reports, Aparna said that she came to know about the institution through her friends and decided to join the institution to learn more about Islam.
Denying her mother's version that she was forcefully converted, Aparna is reported to have said that her mother was under pressure from relatives to file a complaint.
21-year-old Aparna alias Ayisha, a native of Pangode in Thiruvananthapuram had gone missing in March this year.
In her complaint, the girl's mother Mini Vijayan alleged that her daughter was abducted and forcefully converted by "a mysterious set of people" only a fortnight before her marriage. Her family had filed habeas corpus petition twice, but the magistrate ruled in Aparna's favour both times.
Taking note of this, commission Chairperson Justice JB Koshy had on Wednesday asked the police to submit a report by August 29 after due investigations.
Abdurahiman Baqavi, the chairperson of the Trust claimed that the institution did not facilitate religious conversion, and that such baseless rumours were propagated by Sangh Parivar.