Vanita Sharma — mother of the late actress Tunisha — said for the first time that her daughter was under pressure to convert to Islam. Speaking to the media, she said that Tunisha was constantly harassed in different ways by her ex-boyfriend Sheezan Khan — currently in custody — and his family, and she was forced to do many things against her wishes and was allegedly under duress to embrace Islam.
“They had an undue influence on our innocent, sensitive girl. She had even started addressing Sheezan’s mother as ‘Ammi’, his sister used to take her to a ‘dargah’ and celebrate her birthday,” said Vanita.
She said that Sheezan, Tunisha’s co-star in the Sony SAB TV serial ‘Ali Baba: Dastaan-e-Kabul’, was allegedly forcing her to accept Islam religion, and she had reportedly started sporting a burqa.
Vanita slammed the Khan family for compelling Tunisha to spend long hours or days at their home, ostensibly against her will, decorating their home for her birthday party, and she bought expensive gifts for them.
The distraught bereaved mother called upon the Palghar Police to rope in the Khan family for their investigations and at one point even voiced suspicions that Tunisha’s death could be a murder.
Recalling the sequence of events, Vanita said Tunisha wanted to go to celebrate Christmas in Chandigarh for a couple of days to get a change. “A day before (December 23), I had dropped in on the teleserial sets unannounced, but she was very busy… Yet she told me to speak with Sheezan. I met him, but he just said he was ‘sorry’ and told me I could do whatever I want,” said Vanita.
The Sharma family has also raised doubts at the purported delay of nearly 30 minutes to rush Tunisha to the hospital where she was declared dead on December 24, and are troubled as to “what happened in just a few hours” after she reached the shooting venue.
Tunisha, 20, committed suicide on December 24 on the sets of a teleserial being shot at a location in Vasai, and a day later, her co-star Sheezan was arrested after her mother accused him of cheating, two-timing, betrayal, using her for 3-4 months and other things in a video-statement.
The Sharma family reiterated that they want justice for Tunisha who had no major illness barring OCD, and rejected the claims of the Khans that she was suffering from depression.
“If she was in depression, she could not have worked for long hours at shoots, memorising lengthy dialogues,” Vanita pointed out. Once, when Tunisha had checked Sheezan’s mobile he became furious and slapped her and then announced he was breaking off with her.
“Knowing that our religion is different from theirs, seeing the huge age difference (around 8 years), why did they involve her so deeply, what are the reasons… Why did his mother speak long hours with her about Sheezan’s ex-girlfriend which Tunisha said she did not like,” demanded Tanisha.
She urged that Sheezan should not be spared and must be punished to ensure justice to Tunisha as she was cheated at every step.
Meanwhile, Kangana Ranaut has also stated that Tunisha was pushed to end her life. Writing on social media, Kangana posted: “A woman can cope with everything, loss of love, marriage, relationship or even a loved one but she can never deal with the fact that her love story never had love, for the other person, her love and vulnerability was just an easy target for exploitation, her reality was not the same as the other person who was in it only to use and abuse her physically and emotionally.
“When it is revealed to her, her reality starts to warp and distort itself, shift shape to fit in the facts that are revealed to her in a shocking manner. Every incidence, each experience she associates with beauty and love starts to replay in her mind, slowly blending dream, reality, imagination, all in order to fit in the brutality of a betrayal.
“She can’t trust her own perception and in such a state one feels no difference in being alive or dead, after all life is just our perception and if she decides to end her life… Please know she didn’t do it alone… it’s a murder.
“Indulging in polygamy with multiple women without their consent or knowledge should be a criminal offence. S*xually exploiting women without taking any responsibility for their physical, mental, and emotional well-being while breaking up with them suddenly without any valid reason should also be a criminal offence.”
Actress Payal Rohatgi has also insisted on proper investigation of the case and if Tunisha had control over her finances.
Current media frenzy notwithstanding, Tunisha’s untimely death promises to become yet another case of a Hindu girl destroying her life due to proximity, forced or otherwise, with a Muslim man. Unless Hindus understand the true nature of Islam – and the way Muslims, including well-to-do middle/upper-middle class sections of society, are indoctrinated since birth to consider Islam as the perfect religion and Hindus as spiritually deficient ‘idol worshippers’ condemned to eternal hellfire – they will continue being susceptible to the ‘all religions are the same’ brainwashing modern Hindus grow up with.
Hindus need to make Dharma the center-point of their lives. We need to understand the core teachings of our Dharma and how those stand in stark difference to the exclusivist beliefs of Abrahamic religions. Only those communities who can respect our Dharma deserve our respect. Unless we teach these basics to our children and give them the intellectual tools to safeguard themselves, we will continue to fail as parents and as a community.
(With IANS inputs)
“Current media frenzy notwithstanding, Tunisha’s untimely death promises to become yet another case of a Hindu girl destroying her life due to proximity, forced or otherwise, with a Muslim man. ”
You NAILED it Vikramji. Simple as that: when a Muslim man is in some sort of proximity (physical, virtual, electronic, whatever) to a Hindu girl, the chances of that Hindu girl coming to a bad end increase exponentially! Due to the core teachings ofIslam, it is in the “fitrat” of a Muslim man to abuse the kafir girl, and to try to use her in a s*xual way. This is inescapable from the teachings themselves. For them, all our women are “those that the right hand possesses” (Q 4.3, 4.24). In short, they are devoid of any human spirit, any value, they are mere objects that Alla has given the Muslim man for his possession and enjoyment.
Just like a lamb when it comes into proximity with a wolf (under whatever circumstances) is very likely to end up dead, so is the same with a Hindu girl and a Muslim man.
WE MUST REALISE THIS IF WE ARE TO SAVE OURSELVES.
Shivji, all your points are good. As for reporting to police, since no crime had happened till then, there was nothing she could report. Tunisha was an adult, and you cannot stop an adult from persuing a relationship. As for telling her daughter to not go back, my sense is all this happened quickly, in period of 2-3 months, during which time Sheejan’s family was almost stopping Tunisha from even approaching her own mother. I got this sense after seeing their long interview on Arnab’s show. She said they were trying to exclude her from Tunisha’s life.
There is no doubt that there was a concerted effort on part of Sheejan and his family to mentally and emotionally manipulate/control Tunisha. This is what the other side does in 99% of love jihad cases. There is strong manipulation, so that the victim becomes almost like an ex-Hindu. She gets cut off from her Hindu roots, her family, her traditions, her temples. What Tunisha’s mother is saying is more or less this itself.
When Vanita ji knew what was happening
Why she never repoted to police?
Why she didn’t tell her daughter to come back and never go again.
Although after seeing so many Abduls killing their Hindu girlfriend or wife Vanita and her husband must have stopped their daughter and should have taken help of police or some Hindu organisation. But now there is no point even discussing that.