Citing “national security,” the Pune police, on the night of December 5, picked up Nepali citizen Neetu Singh, a final-year editing student at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), from her hostel, packed her belongings, took her to Mumbai and deported her to Kathmandu the next day, reports The Indian Express.
While the police claim she was involved in “anti-national” activities, women's groups and her colleagues allege that she was sent back to Nepal against her wishes at the behest of her “influential” husband Amaresh Singh, a Nepali Congress politician.
Said Pune Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Ravindra Sengaonkar: “Neetu Singh was deported to Nepal because she was found to be involved in anti-national activities. It was a high-level secret operation which our team completed successfully in quick time.”
Asked what these “activities” were, Sengaonkar said: “We are not supposed to share details. The case is high-profile and various investigative agencies are involved.”
Asked if Neetu's deportation had anything to do with Amaresh Singh, Sengaonkar said: “The police isn't concerned about her domestic problems. She was deported considering national security. She was handed over to her parents at Kathmandu airport.”
Neetu was at FTII on a scholarship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. Amaresh Singh, a chemistry teacher in Kathmandu's Amrit Science college, got a scholarship to do his Ph D in Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Their wedding two years ago at the Armed Police Force club was a major social event in Kathmandu attended by the top political establishment, including Prachanda, G P Koirala and Baburam Bhattarai.The political upheaval in Nepal saw Amaresh nominated as a member of the House. Amaresh lost the election to the Constituent Assembly in April 2008 and shuttles between New Delhi and Kathmandu and flaunts his political connections.
The All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) has taken up Neetu's case. Its Maharashtra unit chief Kiran Moghe claimed that in June 2008, Neetu “first approached us to complain against her husband's harassment.”
“The marriage had soured and Neetu wanted to break away. Her husband is an influential politician in Nepal and started to harass her. He would send her all kinds of emails and SMSs. We registered a complaint on her behalf with the police,” said Moghe.
FTII director Pankaj Rag confirmed to The Indian Express that Amaresh had visited her her last year but he refused him permission since she did not want to meet her.
Rag said he had talked to her father. “He told me she had reached home. He added that she was getting destroyed — he used the word barbaad — in Pune and so he wanted her back.”
FTII Matron Gloria Koshy said that at 10.30 pm on December 5, two women plainclothes officers came to the hostel and said they had come to “take Neetu as she needed to identify someone against whom she had registered a complaint earlier.”
“I felt a bit uncomfortable about the way they had taken her. In 20 minutes, five to six women officers came and asked the way to her room S-9 and packed her things. When I tried to protest, they said they had informed the director,” said Koshy.
Said Moghe: “If Neetu was working against national interest, why aren't they questioning her in Nepal? Was there a Magistrate's order as per the law regarding arrest of women after sunset? If there was a proper deportation order, why was it not shown to the Director or the Matron or to Neetu?”
