Chennai: In the small hours before dawn, a young woman was waiting with bated breathe at the Bhopal railway junction for the arrival of the Grand Trunk Express heading to Chennai. A Tamil youth was on standby for protection till she boarded the train. With great relief, at 3.30 am, Rani (23), (name changed) stepped onto the train, embarking on a new journey.
Having no plans about the future, escaping from the family, especially from the clutches of her stepmother, an occult practitioner out to make the young lady a human sacrifice, has driven her to travel in search of safety. Shortly ahead of boarding the Chennai train, she had played a trick. “I am going to end my life. I do not blame anyone for this. Please do not search for me,” was a video message she had sent before throwing the mobile phone into a compartment of a moving train heading towards Mathura.
“However, my family with their political and bureaucratic connections recovered the phone within the next 6 hours and a hectic search was on. But, by then, I had come a long way in the opposite direction,” Rani recalled, her voice still trembling with fear.
How did she learn the evil design of her stepmother? “I stumbled upon it accidentally. My stepmother gave her mobile phone and asked me to delete the files since it had reached maximum storage. While browsing through the files - audio, and video - I chanced on an audio file in which she and another one were discussing the auspicious date for sacrificing me. First, they decided on November 4, my birthday. Then shifted it to Holi and finally to Maha Shivaratri – February 18. I was scared and in mortal fear,” she disclosed.
“Even earlier, my younger brother had gone missing and the family wasn't perturbed. When I asked about him, they silenced me saying they were searching. But, to date, they had not even lodged a police complaint. This confirmed my suspicion that he had been a victim of human sacrifice by my stepmother, who had also sacrificed another person. My father remained silent all along which forced me to take this decision to leave Bhopal,” explained Rani, a PG in Dietetics as well as a diploma holder in Yoga.
“Well connected politically, my family pushed me to join the ABVP, the student wing of the RSS. Since I was confined to my home, I took it as an opportunity to experience the breeze of the outside world. I also became a functionary which gave me the leeway to go out. It was in ABVP, I came into contact with two youth from Tamil Nadu, one of whom accompanied me to the railway junction and stood with me till I boarded the train to Chennai,” she said and expressed apprehension about his safety of the person who was with her at the railway station since the police are keeping him in illegal custody. “We could not reach him. They have apprehended him with the help of CCTV footage,” she added.
Does her stepmother have children? “She has three girls and one boy.” “Our family is from Uttar Pradesh and when my father got a government job, we shifted to Madhya Pradesh. And only during the Covid pandemic, I realised that she is not my biological mother. And, when I knew about her evil plans, I patiently collected my certificates as well as my Aadhaar card without giving any room for doubt. Since I was leaving for good, I had to take many things and an ABVP camp was the ruse which they could not suspect,” explained Rani.
Why Tamil Nadu? To this, Rani explains “It is not Chennai, but I had chosen Tamil Nadu, since I am confident of being safe and secure. The state and the people are progressive. Yes, my family is politically well connected. But, I do not want my case to be a political hot potato. I do not want that. I want to live in peace.”
