The Hindu : Where religion does not matter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 05, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Where religion does not matter

By G. Nagaraja

ELURU Sept. 4. The lean and anaemic Zareena, a native of old city in Hyderabad, hardly feels the joy of giving birth to a cherubic girl child.

For the 30-year-old women, who fell in love with a Hindu boy from this district headquarters town, enduring her labour pains proved to be a lone battle. There was virtually none, including her better-half, to console and comfort her, leave alone sharing her joy. Instead, she is constrained to put up with the encounters by guests in plain clothes and their searching questions. With an escort of women constables in labour ward in the Government hospital here, the tell-tale story of Zareena appears to have all the trappings of a horror movie.

Zareena, a literate in Arabic language, and Aravind, a dropout of software engineering course got married against the wishes of their elders as the religious faiths came in the way of their love. Aravind, son of an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) brought her here for delivery some two weeks ago.

Her trauma began for no fault of hers when her delivery was synchronised with the bloody blasts in Mumbai by accident and her being the native of old city. Little did she know what was in store for her when her husband left her in search of money to meet the hospital expenses on Saturday.

Even as Aravind tried to sell away his Maruti van which he brought from Hyderabad and mobilise money, some people grew suspicious and informed the police. Initially, the police nabbed five of his local associates and used them as a booby trap for nabbing him . When he returned to the hospital, a big contingent of police, who included three Rakshak teams and blue colts, pounced on him and whisked him away in a tizzy with the suspicion that he was having links with ISI. Prior to his nabbing a posse of police virtually took over the hospital premises and sealed off the main gate, restricting the passage of patients and visitors.

Aravind, along with his associates, who were allegedly detained in an unidentified place, turned out to be a favourite stuff for the local police and intelligence wings which included the Special Branch and Counter Intelligence departments. The intelligence sleuths did not spare even Zareena.

At last, for the police, it was like much ado for nothing. Intensive inquiries revealed that Aravind did not have links with any terrorist groups nor was he involved in any major offences locally or in Hyderabad. According to information, he was let off on Thursday. After a five-day trauma, he had his re-union with his wife and child at the Government hospital. Stalked by fear and shock, a sobbing Aravind refused to speak of his encounter with the police.

Meanwhile, the district SP, K. Rajaratnam Naidu, denied that Aravind was neither taken into custody nor arrested by the police. The SP told The Hindu that the police had only summoned him for `questioning' while was moving around `suspiciously'.

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Where religion does not matter