Delhi High Court Friday ruled Suhaib Ilyasi did not murder his wife Anju in January 2000, overturning the life sentence awarded by a trial court.
New Delhi: Former TV anchor Suhaib Ilyasi’s life somewhat mirrors the episodes of India’s Most Wanted (IMW), the show he conceptualised alongside his deceased wife Anju.
Ilyasi maintains that he was a victim of the anti-dowry law, and Friday, the Delhi High Court acquitted him of murdering his wife and “giving it a colour of suicide”.
In 2011, Ilyasi wrote, directed and produced a film called 498A: The Wedding Gift — starring Alok Nath, Deepak Tijori, Reema Lagoo and Farida Jalal — which highlighted the misuse of the anti-dowry law.
However, he insists that this film was based on the life of his best friend Syed Makhdoom, who committed suicide in 2009.
Love story with a tragic end
Ilyasi, who hails from Nuh, Haryana, met Anju in 1989 while studying at Jamia Millia Islamia’s Mass Communication Research Centre.
“Anju was a very bright student and went to London to study further,” said Shree Nivash, a journalist who started his career as a researcher for IMW, the show the couple conceptualised. “Ilyasi, who loved her, followed Anju to London, where they later married in 1993, despite opposition from their families.”
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Those who worked with the couple said Ilyasi was very caring towards his wife. However, some say she was very aggressive and short-tempered.
In January 2000, Anju died in a hospital from injuries inflicted through multiple stab wounds. Three months later, in March, the police arrested Ilyasi on the suspicion of murdering his wife for dowry, based on a complaint filed by her mother and sister.
He was convicted by a trial court in Delhi on 16 December 2017, and sentenced to life imprisonment for “committing murder and giving it a colour of suicide”.
However, the Delhi High Court Friday ruled: “One of the key links in the chain of circumstances, i.e. that the death was homicidal, has not been proved by the prosecution. What has come through both in the medical and forensic evidence is only that the death resulted from stab injuries caused by the kitchen knife which was found in the house.
“Merely because the deceased was found to be in good spirits around two hours prior to the incident would not rule out the possibility of her committing suicide by stabbing herself as a result of her quarrel with the Appellant which has been spoken to by PW-18 (a prosecution witness).
“The precise circumstances that led to the said decision of the deceased might be difficult to explain but surmises and conjectures cannot substitute proof,” the division bench of the Delhi High Court said.
A landmark show
IMW — which aired on Zee TV between the years 1998-2000 — was a gritty crime show that reconstructed unsolved police cases. Around 30 absconding criminals that were featured on the show were later captured, a testament to its immense popularity among the public.
Outlook magazine’s 1998 article ‘To Catch a Thief on Telly’ outlined a few examples of this, including that of dreaded gangster Shriprakash Shukla.
The episode profiling Shukla was telecast on 8 September 1998, and after an alert viewer tipped off the Uttar Pradesh Police, the gangster was gunned down on the Delhi-Ghaziabad border on 22 September 1998.
“IMW was inspired by the famous crime show America’s Most Wanted. The concept was adopted and conceptualised and created by Anju,” said Shree Nivash. “She even anchored the first episode.”
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However, later, Ilyasi took over and carried the show till it ended two years later in 2000. Initially, Zee TV had planned to air only 52 episodes; however, the contract was renewed for additional episodes after the show’s TRPs shot through the roof.
Later career
The success of the show made Ilyasi so popular that he even had a cameo playing himself in the Shahrukh Khan-Juhi Chawla starrer Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.
After IMW folded, Ilyasi worked on a few fictional serials like Ek Nazar Ki Tamanna (Zee Urdu) and Tumhara Intezar Hai (ETV Urdu), among others.
Much later, Ilyasi started a new show along the lines of IMW, Fugitive Most Wanted, for Doordarshan. Even though the format of the show was the similar to IMW, it never became as popular.
Zee TV, on the other hand, renewed IMW with Manoj Raghuvanshi as the anchor. But it was not the same.