More than a dozen Chennai police personnel, four of them holding rifles, stood guard at an ordinary narrow street in one of the city’s busiest neighbourhoods to protect 23-year-old Shalini Sharma who fled Bhopal on a train to, as per her claims, “escape from her family that was trying to kill her in a ritualistic human sacrifice”. Her claims are yet to be substantiated by the Madhya Pradesh police.
According to Sharma, two peers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), from Tamil Nadu, whom she had gotten close to in the past year in Bhopal, motivated her to escape so that she can be helped by people from the ‘ideologically opposite’ Thanthai Periyar Dravidar Kazhagam (TPDK).
The two and Sharma were hiding in three different locations in Chennai after the latter reached here on February 17. Sharma said that the Bhopal police, influenced by her “powerful family”, were after them before her case, represented by TPDK lawyer S Doraisamy, came up in court on February 24.
Justice G Chandrashekhar, of the Madras high court, found it ‘disheartening’ that human sacrifices are still being performed and issued a notice to the woman’s parents. The court also ordered the Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh police to file a status report.
The woman’s family had filed a missing person complaint with the Bhopal police, which found that she had travelled to Delhi before reaching Chennai. She was dropped at Bhopal railway station by her friend, Dakshina Moorthy. The woman feared that her family may harm him. “That’s why I filed a case in court. I had to come out and tell the truth for my friends’ sake. They are in danger for trying to save my life,” Sharma alleged.
According to Sharma, her family was planning to kill her in a human sacrifice on November 4 this year and claimed that she found out about it during the Covid-19 lockdown when she was cleaning her stepmother’s mobile phone.
Sharma showed her left wrist and ankle which had scars and claimed that she had attempted to die by suicide.
In her petition before the Madras high court, she had accused her family of being “strong believers of black magic” and being politically supported by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). A postgraduate in nutrition from the Government Maharani Laxmi Bai Girls’ College, Sharma said she is a full-time worker of ABVP, the student wing of RSS.
While in ABVP, she had become friends with Moorthy, who was studying law at Barkatullah University. As she was constantly “sad and moody”, Moorthy had suggested that she meet a psychologist, which is when Sharma confided in him that her family is planning to kill her. Moorthy and their close friends motivated her to flee Bhopal, she alleged.
For 15 days, she collected her things and packed three bags. Her friends booked a ticket for her to travel to Chennai where another ABVP member, whose name she did not want to mention for their protection, took her to TPDK.
Tamil Nadu public prosecutor Hasan Mohamed Jinnah, assisted by government advocate S Santhosh, submitted to the court that police are ready to provide protection. “In view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, this court directs the respondent police to give necessary and suitable police protection to the petitioner,” justice Chandrashekhar ordered.
TPDK’s Jana Vijay said they did a background check when their help was sought: “We had our doubts as she is from the RSS and we are ideologically different. We wondered why they need our help. When we understood the situation, we agreed and took her to our advocate.”
Advocate Doraisamy also sent a letter to Chennai city commissioner Shankar Jiwal, Tamil Nadu chief secretary Irai Anbu and state’s director general of police (DGP) Sylendra Babu, added Vijay.
“The local police called me and enquired about the matter as three police officers had come from Bhopal looking for the woman. That’s when we shifted her to different locations to safeguard her as she claimed they would take her back for her family to perform human sacrifice.”
“Chennai police will provide security for Sharma for the next three weeks until the next court orders. Since her brother has filed a missing person complaint, the Bhopal police were here for a couple of days,” said Mylapore deputy commissioner Rajat Chaturvedi.
“No crime has happened in Chennai so we have not registered any case. We have provided four armed guards and one woman police constable each in two shifts and a patrol vehicle round-the-clock to be with her throughout the day.”
Bhopal police commissioner Makrand Deouskar said a missing complaint was filed in the matter at Kolar police station. “During the investigation, it was found that the woman put her mobile phone in a Delhi-bound train. The device was recovered in Jhansi,” Deouskar said.
“Later, she released some videos in which she claimed that she was going to die by suicide in Varanasi. But, police found her in Chennai. When they reached Chennai to rescue her, they came to know that she had filed a petition in court. We are yet to receive any notice from the court and a copy of the petition. After receiving the notice, we will act accordingly.”
(With inputs from Shruti Tomar)
