Hyderabad, October 24
The Andhra Pradesh High Court today dismissed a habeas corpus petition after the girl in question deposed that she had changed her faith on her free volition.

Pallavi, a 20-year-old student of St Anne’s Degree College, Mehidipatnam, had gone missing in July after she changed her name to Sana Fatima. She had apparently left her house with her neighbour Khader Ali, who was later found dead.

Pallavi’s parents had filed a petition seeking her whereabouts. The court asked the police to trace the girl failing which the DGP would have to appear in the court to give reasons.

In a dramatic appearance, burqa-clad Pallavi, accompanied by Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen MP Asadudin Owaisi and two other women, sought an audience with Chief Justice Bilal Nazki. Her statement was recorded in camera in the presence of the Advocate-General and Petitioners’ counsel.

“I have voluntarily converted to Islam. I am a major and free to take my decisions. I am facing threat to my life from my parents, and that is why I had gone into hiding,” she said in the court.