Bharti Singh, daughter of former BJP MLA from Bhopal Surendranath Singh, has filed a petition in Madhya Pradesh High Court, seeking protection from her family whom she has accused of harassment.
Bharti, 26, who had been reported missing by her family since October 15, has also released two videos to the media, saying she had left home on her own accord and did not want to go back as she was being continuously harassed by her family.
When contacted by THE WEEK, Surendranath Singh, who was also the ex-president of Bhopal district unit of BJP, said his daughter was under treatment (for mental issues) and there was nothing more to the issue. Later, he told media that it was a family matter and he would talk to his daughter to sort it out. The media should not create an issue out of it, he said.
In the missing complaint filed with the Kamla Nagar police in Bhopal, the family had said that Bharti was mentally unstable.
However, Bharti said in the video that she was totally normal and not mentally unstable as claimed by her family. She also mentioned the name of her maternal cousin Sushil who, she alleged, had beaten her up. Bharti said she had been facing harassment for the last 10 years and she had left home on earlier occasions, too.
She said she was not with any Christian or Muslim person as was being rumoured, and requested that it should not be turned into a caste (religion) issue.
In her petition, Bharti, however, has cited her love affair as the reason behind the family's harassment. Her lawyer, Ankit Saxena, told THE WEEK that his client had expressed fear for her life and sought protection from her family.
Saxena said Bharti in her petition had mentioned her father, her cousin and Bhopal police personnel as involved in harassing and intimidating her. She has also mentioned about a private hospital in Bhopal, where she was allegedly kept sedated and confined by the family. The family wanted to get her married to the son of a BJP MLA by force, she alleged in the petition.
Sources said Bharti had been in a love with a man from the minority community for the past several years and that was the cause of her fallout with family. After completing her education in Pune, Bharti returned to Bhopal, but was reportedly staying in a working women's hostel and not at home.
Her family called her home recently on the pretext that her mother was ill. Since then she was being pressurised to agree to the marriage proposal with the son of the BJP MLA, following which she left home late in the night, sources added.
Congress media cell in-charge Shobha Oza said it was a family matter and should be sorted out amicably through talks. “However, if the girl has sought protection, she should get it,” Oza said.
