As a child, I once got really sick.
My father took me to every doctor and did everything he could possibly do.
A lot of rituals and religious chants were also performed.
Then, "Swami Shraddhananda" from the "Arya Samaj, "
who was a disciple of Dayanand Saraswati…
he was an experienced yogi
and one of the best educationists.
He'd asked my mother to take me home and said that I'd survive.
Back then, he asked my parents to name me Swami Shraddhananda when I grew up.
I always believe that there are only two types of people in the world.
Either the ordinary…
or the extraordinary.
Have you ever heard of
Murli Manohar Mishra who lived in this lane?
No, I've never heard about him.
Have you heard of Murli Manohar Mishra who lived here?
I don't know anything about them.
A family named Mishra stayed here.
-Yes. -Have you heard about them?
Yes, I did.
-You did? -Yes.
A family named Mishra lived here.
Now…
two of the brothers died, and one is somewhere else.
I don't know about his whereabouts.
There's only an open space there. The house collapsed.
It was a thatched house back then.
Every great person in the world
change with time according to society.
That's what makes them different from the others.
My mind,
my soul…
and my body always said that…
I am not one of these people.
I am different.
Murder. This one was especially horrific.
Shakereh Namazie.
Her body was exhumed from a courtyard in her own house in Bengaluru.
The body of an aristocratic lady was buried in her bungalow.
It's a human tragedy.
Sensationalism…
was there in the facts of the case itself.
So, there was a competition among the
newspapers, competition between news channels.
It was virtually…
trial by fire. Trial by media.
Public horror and outrage
at the gruesome murder of Shakereh.
The self-professed Swami Shraddhananda who reportedly buried her alive.
Today's story is about the death of humanity.
It's about the devil in disguise.
This cold-blooded murder was planned well in advance.
Swami actually lured her
into marriage with an eye on her wealth and property…
worth crores of rupees.
There has been a lot of gossip about it.
But the media and…
the police
has primarily gone on the basis of the conversation
that the family members have had with the police.
So there are more sides to this man…
than what we know.
The fact that the court has given him a life sentence without remission…
you know, saying that this man is a danger to society.
He should remain behind bars, even if it is till his death.
It was a huge case.
I was shocked when I saw this case.
And when I read this case…
I was equally shocked.
It was all over in the news.
Every news channel you know.
Property worth lakhs of rupees! He killed! He killed!
He was painted like a monster.
I am Alok Vagrecha…
and I am an advocate by profession.
And it is almost 21 years now since I have been practicing law.
So, this is what it is.
It's very difficult to win a case which has been tried by the media.
There was a strong needle of suspicion which was pointing towards Shraddhananda.
But, suspicion however grave…
cannot take place of proof.
This case has also been viewed from this angle…
that when a man from the lower strata of society
travels into the higher strata of society and commits a crime,
then he needs to be punished in an exemplary way.
There is a huge angle of money in this case.
There was equally a motive for others to falsely implicate him in the crime.
I think he has suffered enough.
It is time to let him go.
The number you are calling is out…
I am just trying to get…
Mr. Shraddhananda in Sagar Central Jail, over phone.
The number you are calling is out of network coverage area.
It's not possible to call him.
The number you are calling is out of network coverage area.
When I argued this case I was 32 years old.
My objective was, I'll argue for an acquittal.
Emotionally when you become involved…
in a case, it is very painful.
This has been my experience with this particular case.
The way he has been convicted cannot stand.
It was a case of mistrial.
He is an…
old man…
inside prison since last 25 years.
CENTRAL JAIL SAGAR
This way?
Can I go in?
Thank you.
Shraddhanandaji!
You have saved my life!
It has been a long time for you.
Yeah, very long.
They will be asking you questions…
-and you can answer them. -Yes.
Simple?
And if you get confused, ask them again.
Some judge came to visit me.
So he asked me,
why don't you send a mercy petition?
I'm trying my best to write down and
send to…
Governor either--
You write and then you see.
What-- What happens. We'll see what happens.
Thank you very much.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
-I'll see you. Bye. -Bye.
She used to call me Raj.
Shakereh was a very good person.
She had great ideals and she spoke really well.
I never saw her behave badly.
She used to say, "Raj, if I die,
I will have no regrets because I have lived my life fully
that I couldn't in those 20 years of marriage. "
Going out with you, seeing new places, enjoying life.
The moments spent with you are the most beautiful in my life. "
She had Mongolian eyes.
She had big desires.
She loved going out to restaurants.
She loved drinking wine during a meal.
I only later learned that cigars are first bitten by teeth,
then the fragrance is inhaled
and then it is smoked.
My wife used to do all that.
My wife was the most modern.
I met Shakereh Khaleeli…
for the first time in the year 82 or 83.
The Begum introduced us.
It was a simple upper-middle-class family.
The kids were nice too.
She was often worried during that time
because she didn't have enough money.
And she wanted to build a big building on her property.
But nobody was supporting her.
So, Begum sahib told me
that she has some important business…
and if I could take care of them in Bangalore.
A new law was introduced in the country in the year 1971-1972.
Urban Ceiling Land Act.
The Urban Ceiling Land Act said that people can only own five acres of land.
The rest of the land will be occupied by the government.
The family requested me to stay and solve their land issues.
In a democracy, laws are fascinating.
The laws are so flexible…
that you can find loopholes in them.
Like today, you are interviewing me,
you made me sign some documents.
Now, if I say that I was forced to sign it by the superintendent, DGP.
I was beaten and that's why I agreed to give an interview to Ankit under pressure.
That's a different thing that I did it with my own free will.
But a law is a law.
Upon their request,
I started building houses for them.
Then I got their land freed from Urban Ceiling.
In order to make all this possible, I was spending my own money.
Mrs. Khaleeli invited me to stay in their house.
And in 1984, I started living in their house.
Mr. Khaleeli never stayed with her.
He traveled all the time to different countries.
I noticed that they lived mostly apart after marriage.
They had a fight at the beginning of 1985.
She had some major differences with Akbar Khaleeli.
Because of these differences,
she took a divorce from him.
One thing was sure that she was not happy with her…
first family.
I was told that when divorce proceedings took place…
she returned all jewelry that was gifted to her by Akbar Khaleeli.
So, she was not a lady who'd care for money.
And after the divorce,
she decided to move out and live by herself.
Shakereh was a very sophisticated woman.
She used to go to big parties,
she used to deal with big men.
She had very different qualities than me.
I even had to go to many offices with her…
and the whole of Bangalore saw us together.
So there might be rumors that we were together,
or even sleeping or eating together.
Now, I cannot stop people from spreading rumors.
Around this time one day,
she put a proposal in front of me.
One day she said that she loves me and wants to get married to me.
I was shocked to hear it and wondered how could she say this to me.
It was true that I was staying with her but like a friend.
But, I had no ill intentions towards her.
Still, she proposed to me to marry her.
I thought that…
she had just gone through a divorce.
It hasn't even been six months!
If she gets married now what will people say?
She said I don't care for society, "Will you marry me?"
Eighty percent of Indian men…
want to marry a virgin girl.
I am an Indian too, so I thought about it.
I thought that one day I have to settle down.
So we got married in 1986.
We called a sub-registrar to a flat.
We got married under the Special Marriage Act.
I had a lawyer,
one chartered accountant,
and an auto driver, who used to take us around as our marriage witnesses.
I and she got married.
And that marriage…
started a troubling time for me!
That marriage really started the troubles for me.
I cautioned her against him.
He once told me,
"The only language anybody knows is money. "
And then suddenly I heard…
she was married to him,
and that finished my world.
I was absolutely shattered!
Gauhar Namazie was a great lady.
But this thing came up in her mind…
that how can a girl from a family of 1000 years history
go to an idol worshiper?
She should be buried alive for doing this.
I was welcome in her house ten days before marriage for food…
and ten days after the marriage…
everything had changed.
There was no mother-daughter relationship left.
She was good to us
but people change with situations.
When religion comes in between, people change.
At that time
she was staying at the Richmond road house.
That property originally belonged to my father,
Sir Mirza Ismail.
The property was given to my daughter to be passed on to her four daughters.
And she had sworn on the Quran that she would hold the property for them.
I initiated two civil actions against my daughter.
They started fighting
and her parents filed six to seven cases against us.
She sent a telegram saying Shakereh, you are dead to me.
You are no more welcome in Singapore.
Mr. Swami Shraddhananda is not welcome in Singapore also,
neither he is welcome anywhere in the Khaleeli family.
The cases weren't bothering me.
They were stressing Shakereh.
I'm a man. I can bear all kinds of stress.
A man can tolerate a lot.
A woman can tolerate everything,
but not outside world's grief which her own family causes.
We had a great married life,
but, the cases had begun torturing us.
Daily hearings were making our life hell.
Because of this, she started getting stressed.
The doctor prescribed her some medicines.
She started taking the prescriptions.
She had a lot of stress on her.
She used to take a lot of other medicines to sleep peacefully.
To live peacefully.
Every time she returned late from
a party she took her medicines the next morning.
She woke up between 9:00 and 10:00 a. m. in the morning.
She started becoming quite fat…
and started forgetting things.
All women have a desire for a baby.
She was around 43 or 44 years old
when we had a baby.
It was a boy.
One day she fell down the stairs after drinking.
She got hurt.
We got her admitted to Ram Krishna Nursing Home.
She was saved from dying, that day.
She could have died there that day.
A premature boy was born after two days.
He was a good child.
If he'd been alive he would have grown much older today.
I had also cradled the boy in my arms.
He was a good boy.
But he couldn't survive.
What can I do about it?
People have made all kinds of one-sided stories.
But the truth is that she had a baby.
That too, at the age of 44, when it was difficult for her to conceive.
It was a distressing time for both of us,
and we used to argue with each other during this time.
But, we never spend a day away from each other.
One day what happened…
it was 26 or 27 March 1991.
That day in the morning I had gone to the health club.
When I returned from the health club…
what happened is that when I reached home…
And…
after reaching I saw…
that…
she was lying dead.
I was so shocked that my body became numb.
I couldn't understand what to do!
Her body was lying there in that condition for one whole day.
I kept thinking that if this news spreads outside…
then I will surely be killed.
Because the Hindu-Muslim angle was already there in our marriage.
That's why I was very afraid.
At that time, my house helpers
said they'd support me in this tragedy.
They dug the hole and did everything.
I thought she should be buried according to the Muslim rituals.
Actually, I should've gone to the police at that time.
Everything would've been okay then.
But fear cripples a person so much,
that a person is unable to take a decision.
She always said, "If I die, I'll die in this property itself. "
"And bury me here. " I used to tell her, "Why do you talk like this?"
I was in a daze…
from morning till evening.
I didn't know what to do.
I was unable to think and reason.
We kept her in a box facing west,
keeping her in the direction of Kaaba…
I buried her.
She died in the year 1991.
For three years I was scared to tell anyone. That is the truth.
Because I was afraid, I used to lie to everyone
about where she went and what happened to her.
After three years, everyone got to know about her.
One day when I was in the USA.
In the USA, my servants called me and said
that…
we all have been arrested.
And because of our arrest, we have confessed
the location of Shakereh's body.
So the police knew where her body was
and I thought these poor people will die for nothing.
So, I came back from the USA
and after coming back…
I surrendered to the police.
They undressed me in lockup,
everyday at night around 11 or 12.
Their officers used to beat me up.
They tortured me.
They'd force me to lie on an ice slab.
They told me that they will destroy me there,
and that my life had no value.
They tortured me so much that,
I agreed with everything they said at that point.
I signed whatever I was asked to sign.
At least by that, they would release me from that hell.
They told me that they will kill me in an encounter.
"What will you be able to do?"
That's why you keep doing whatever we are saying.
-Was she your wife? -Yes.
-What was her name? -Shakereh…
-Shakereh? -Shakereh Shraddhananda…
-Shakereh Shraddhananda? -Yes.
You put her body in a box and buried it here?
Yes.
Shakereh Shraddhanand was your wife.
You put her dead body in a plywood box…
-and buried her here? -Yes.
-You have marked that area? -Yes.
-Are you sure? -Yes.
If you ask me the truth,
I used to think about telling everyone the fact everyday.
Sabah was with me only.
I wanted to tell her many times but maybe because of fear or nervousness,
I couldn't tell her.
Why wouldn't I ask for forgiveness?
Somethings have definitely happened wrong.
And for those mistakes,
I always ask for forgiveness from the daughters.
I used to love her a lot.
I'm sorry…
Once she was here…
now there are only memories.
This voice…
You hear that sound?
He will come here also…
-to check all the gates… -Gate…
and he will make this sound.
You tell to somebody…
just tell him, not to come here.
Or he'd come here and make that noise.
It's a murder for gain.
It's a murder for financial gain.
It's a murder for gain.
He cheated her.
He cheated her…
and then murdered her.
He betrayed her big time.
He gave her some pills.
Once she was unconscious, he rolled her body into a box,
then he buried her.
He sold the front property owned by Shakereh.
He sold all of it.
Only one piece of property was left.
It was a big piece of land.
Only when we solved this important clue, could the case be solved.
Otherwise, it seemed impossible.
After the exhumation of the body,
we arrested him…
we charged him for committing a murder.
But it was just so difficult to apply these penal sections.
Because there was no evidence or a witness.
No witness in sight!
We didn't have any information about him.
We didn't have any witnesses!
He never said anything about discovering a dead body…
during our investigation.
To believe him or not,
it all depended upon the court.
Shakereh Namazie had given her power of attorney
to Shraddhananda.
His lavish spending of her money resulted in bitter quarrels.
He divided the property into small plots
and started selling them off.
Shakereh sold the property. I didn't sell them.
Only two parts of 81 Richmond Road were sold.
It happened during the time she was alive.
And yes, I signed as the power of attorney.
But Shakereh received all the money. I didn't get any of it.
Also, the amount received wasn't big enough to commit a murder.
There was a huge litigation between
Shakereh Khaleeli and her mother and her daughters,
to regain control of the property.
And Shakereh Khaleeli was so angry with her former family…
that she made a will
in the name of Shraddhananda.
Making him the sole heir of the property, if something unfortunate happens to her.
And I never knew about that will.
I had no clue it existed.
If Shraddhananda gets an acquittal, he gets all the properties.
If Shraddhananda gets convicted,
they get all the property.
There was equally a motive
for others to falsely implicate him in the crime.
Shakereh had bank accounts which didn't have any money.
She did give me the right of power of attorney for those accounts.
In order to do whatever operations I wanted to.
I used that power of attorney only once.
In order to start the SS HOUSING FINANCE.
We both had to sign it being in the position of directors of the company.
I also built a house for her.
The SS Mansion is still standing today.
We did it together.
We worked on it together.
It's a beautiful building.
Because, as the legal saying goes…
men may lie but circumstances don't.
Ultimately if you're in a circumstantial evidence case…
if you manage to break
even one link in the chain of circumstance…
the entire chain falls…
and you are entitled to an acquittal.
It is difficult in the Indian context
to get convictions…
when there is no direct evidence.
Building up circumstantial evidence
to convince the court is rather difficult.
But, I thought the regular prosecution side…
may not be able to…
make a good job out of it.
And I thought special attention has to be given to this case because
I was convinced that it was such a cruel matter,
it has to be presented properly and the accused…
has to be convicted.
I talked to Nagesh.
I said I want you to take up this case.
To present the case in court.
And I want the government to appoint a special public prosecutor.
After I went through the final report that is filed in the case,
I thought it is extremely difficult.
No direct evidence.
We have got to bank upon the circumstantial evidence
and it is a challenging task that was given to me.
There is an inherent lacuna in this particular case.
The only evidence is the recovery of the dead body.
But you still have to prove
the factum of murder by independent evidence.
Now, this is a very strange thing that has happened.
This entire thing was video graphed.
The entire sequence was video graphed.
As soon as they reach this house 81 at Richmond road…
the accused puts his hands in his pocket
and takes out the keys of that house, opens the lock.
So you cannot eliminate the possibility of…
keys…
lying unsealed!
On 31st investigating officer goes inside the house with the accused
and recovers eight types of drugs,
to prove that she was given particular poison or sedatives.
Why would he keep those tablets for three or four years,
which were later to be used as evidence against him?
Were these keys not available to the investigating officer?
Whether he had planted those drugs?
Because those drugs were really cheap. They were not expensive drugs.
There couldn't be any motive for keeping those drugs for four years,
in that house.
Here is the break…
in the chain.
That recovery of the drugs becomes doubtful.
Swamiji, for record.
You are charged with burying Shakereh Khaleeli alive.
This is a lie.
I will never admit to this.
A man can't be this cruel to bury a woman alive.
There's no truth to this.
This is an absolute lie.
That's all.