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Anara leaves sleaze behind, head held high
January 6, 2005
Jammu - Former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta walked out of her home here Thursday with
her head held high, speaking to nobody but looking straight into people's eyes,
a day after forensic experts cleared the clouds of sleaze and said she was not
the woman in a porn CD.
For the first time since November, when she was arrested after being implicated
in a sex scandal, there were words of sympathy for the former beauty queen.
"She looked straight into our eyes as if questioning, 'why were you hiding when
I was being tormented for nothing?'," said Sanjay Kumar, a young boy in his
twenties in the congested Chowk Chabutra area of Jammu's walled city.
"Today she has emerged as a real heroine and we as the cowards who did not
stand with her in her hour of crisis," he said.
There were more words of remorse and support for Gupta, who was arrested along
with a cable operator by the Jammu and Kashmir police on Nov 4 last year for
allegedly producing pornographic movies and later released on bail.
From then to Jan 5 the agony has been unrelenting. Exactly after the two months
the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Laboratory announced Wednesday that the porn CD
sent to it by state police did not feature her at all.
Sanjay's words echoed all across this city of one million. The regret that the
case was sensationalised and the police version taken as gospel truth was
palpable.
"I feel sorry for the whole episode and I really wish I had supported her in
the fight against the shame and humiliation thrust upon her," said a college
student, Chandrika Sharma.
The villains in the entire sorry saga are the police, people said vehemently.
Why did police frame Gupta? Who were the people behind it? Did police realise
how shoddy investigation had ruined a young woman's life? The questions were
many as people took stock of the case that catapulted her into nationwide
notoriety.
While police officials were mum, the state police have started an inquiry into
the circumstances that led to the arrest of Gupta, her confinement in police
custody without registration of a case for more than 10 days and the media
being given access to her while in custody.
Director General of Police Gopal Sharma said the report of the experts would
"constitute evidence in the investigations and help us reach the final
conclusions in the case".
As people in Jammu and elsewhere in the country pause to think how a young
woman's name was dragged into a pornographic scandal she had nothing to do
with, the stage has been set for a fierce legal battle on Jan 29 when Gupta's
case comes up for hearing in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
The exact contents of the forensic laboratory report that cleared her name will
be divulged.
Hopefully, it would mark the end of the story of Anara Gupta, who had even been
seen on television while in custody confessing to her "crime". She had said in
media interviews during her police custody that influential people had
exploited her by playing on her ambition to become a movie star.
Gupta, who was crowned Miss Jammu in 2001, had later filed a Rs.10 million suit
against the Jammu and Kashmir police for "coercing" her to make confessional
statements.
"I was tortured and harassed and so were my family members including my
mother," she had alleged in a petition filed in the high court in November.
It was on the directions of the high court that the CD was sent for forensic
examination to Hyderabad 15 days ago.
The saga also featured the National Human Rights Commission with Gupta seeking
permission to place her case before it and the National Commission for Women.
And the government seeking to place her in a Nari Niketan, or a women's welfare
centre - a plea that was dismissed by the court.
Indo-Asian News Service
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Girl
in porn CD not Anara: Lab
1-5-2005
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