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, 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 the 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.
Today's story is about the death of humanity.
It's about the devil in disguise.
CENTRAL JAIL SAGAR
[in Hindi] 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 learnt that cigars are first bitten by teeth,
then it's fragrance is inhaled
and then it is smoked.
My wife used to do all that.
My wife was 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.
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 it.
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.
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 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 marriage with me.
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 the society, "Will you marry me?"
Eighty percent of the 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.
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.
They started fighting
and her parents filed six to seven cases on us.
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 which she started getting tensed.
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 or 10:00 a. m. in the morning.
She started becoming quite fat…
and started forgetting things.
All women has a desire for her baby.
She was around 43 or 44 years old
when we had a baby.
It was a boy.
One day she fell down from stairs after drinking.
She got hurt.
We got her admitted in 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.
Uh… 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…
uh… that…
she was lying dead there.
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,
uh… 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 USA.
In 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 USA
and after coming back…
I surrendered to the police.
They undressed me in lock up,
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 said to me that they will destroy me there,
and that I had no value to my life.
They tortured me so much that,
I agreed on 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 Shraddhananda, 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.
Once she was here…
now there are only memories.
This voice…
[in Hindi] just tell him, not to come here.
Or he'd come here and make that noise.
It's a murder for financial 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 on 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 court.
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.
[in Hindi] I had no clue it existed.
Shakereh had bank accounts which didn't have any money.
She did give me the right of power of attorney for those accounts.
[in Hindi] 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.
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.