The family of model-turned-actress Shikha Joshi, who was found dead at her friend's Mumbai apartment, wants the case to be transferred to Delhi as they fear Mumbai police will not conduct a fair probe.
They also shared with IANS a series of SMSes sent by the 40-year-old Shikha on her father's cell phone two days before her death on Saturday.
Shikha's father K.N. Joshi told IANS: "On May 14, I got three messages (SMS) from Shikha in three minutes, between 9.15 p.m to 9.17 p.m. The messages clearly show there was something wrong."
In the first message, Shikha apparently informed her father of her location: "Mai Nai Gao me hu (I am in Nai Gao)". Nai Gao is a developing suburb north of Mumbai, nine km from Greater Mumbai.
The second message read: "Code Red ke shooting pe... yaha sab gadbad hai... sajish hai" (At Code Red's shooting. Everything is wrong here. It is a conspiracy). "Code Red" is a popular crime-based television show.
The last message from Shikha to her father had an ominous ring and read: "Humko shayad shooting ka naam bol kar fansa diya. (I think I have been trapped in the guise of shooting)."
"She was trapped. I talked to her immediately. Her reply satisfied me as she told me that after shooting, she had left for her friend's flat with 3-4 female colleagues," Joshi said.
When IANS visited the Joshis' Shakarpur residence in east Delhi on Wednesday, the family alleged that Mumbai police were under "some pressure".
Her brother Vishesh Joshi said the whole family felt threatened after the incident.
The family refuses to accept that Shikha committed suicide and suspects foul play.
"We doubt Shikha will get justice unless the case is transferred to Delhi as the accused is very powerful," Vishesh Joshi told IANS. "We too will be murdered like Shikha if we go to Mumbai for the case."
He alleged a conspiracy and said there was constant pressure from plastic surgeon Vijay Sharma to drop the molestation case filed by Shikha against him, but she refused to give in under pressure.
Vishesh Joshi claimed Shikha had written to the National Commission for Women (NCW) for providing her security cover, as she was getting regular threats from plastic surgeon Sharma.
Shikha had accused the doctor of molestation and was pursuing a court case against him in the matter.
The NCW had written to Mumbai police to provide her security whenever she was in the city for attending court proceedings in connection with the molestation case, Vishesh told IANS.
The doctor had performed a breast implant surgery on Shikha in 2006. The procedure, according to the family, had reportedly gone awry and the actress developed some complications.
Shikha was allegedly molested by the doctor when she went back to meet him in this connection in 2011.
Shikha was found with her throat slit at Andheri's Lokhandwala complex on Saturday evening where she was staying with a woman friend, Madhu Bharti, and her husband.
She had locked herself in the bathroom where she was found in a pool of blood, Bharti told police. She was rushed to a hospital in an unconscious state, but was declared dead on arrival.
(Brajendra Nath Singh can be contacted at brajendra.n@ians.in)
--Indo-Asian News Service
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