New Delhi: Since 15 April, Nempal had been visiting police stations in Meerut, hoping for answers about his missing daughter Anushka Pal, a national-level kabaddi player. On Sunday, the police told him that a body had been recovered from a drain located 50 metres away from a police chowkie. They also said that a fast-food seller outside Anushka’s hostel had confessed to killing her.
According to the police, an unpaid bill of Rs 3,600 was the motive. Anushka, 17, and the accused, Shyam Dhanak, had a tiff over the dues. Anushka, hailing from a family primarily involved in agriculture, was unable to pay. Angry, Shyam allegedly hit her with a brick and dumped her body in a drain. Police say the body had completely disintegrated, and only skeletal remains were found. DNA profiling is yet to be carried out to confirm if it is actually Anushka.
While the family claims that they almost immediately approached the police who initially refused to lodge a missing persons report, the latter maintained that the family formally reported her disappearance 10 days later, on 27 April. A senior police officer said that the family initially tried to find her themselves, adding that an FIR on kidnapping charges was lodged on 28 April.
“We interrogated many people around Anushka—her coach, her friends, and other sportspersons. The investigation revealed Anushka had an argument with a man who had a fast food shop outside the hostel. When we began looking, we found out that the man had gone missing. He became the prime suspect. We identified him as Shyam, who is from Dehradun, but there were no other leads. Anushka’s phone number was also unavailable. The phone could not be traced,” said the officer who investigated the case.
On allegations raised by Anushka’s family that the police took too long to investigate, the officer said, “It took us time to establish the technical details. The accused dumped her phone in the drain, so it took time to find leads.”
After weeks, police reached Chandigarh on Sunday, following technical evidence, where they found Shyam operating a fast food stall. He was arrested after obtaining advanced technical inputs collected from mobile phone surveillance and consulting with various service providers.
During interrogation, Shyam’s statements did not add up. After rigorous questioning, he allegedly confessed. “He revealed that Anushka used to visit his cart. When he demanded repayment of the Rs 3,600 debt, she allegedly threatened to implicate him in a legal case. Driven by this motive, he murdered her using a brick and disposed of her body in the drain,” SSP Avinash Pandey said.
He added that a post-mortem is underway under video surveillance.
A life cut short
Anushka’s family has been seeking answers about what happened to their daughter.
Her father, Nempal, said they did everything to ensure they could pay for her to practice at coaching centres. “I only have 2-3 acres of land, I worked as a sugarcane farmer, as a labourer. My wife took care of cattle. Nobody in our family had reached the level Anushka did. Our only goal was to ensure Anushka plays sports, so she could secure a government job…”
The last conversation Nempal had with his daughter was on 15 April at around 10 pm. “Anushka told me she will be coming home the next day. I was looking forward to meeting her. The next day, we continued to wait, but Anushka never showed up. I made several frantic calls, but nobody picked up….we rushed to her hostel, and then to the police. After several failed attempts to find Anushka, a case was registered.”
The family, locals, neighbours, and the sarpanch put pressure on police to investigate the case, he said. For weeks, the family kept running around police stations before they finally received a phone call from the police saying Shyam had been arrested.
Her idol was Pradeep Narwal
Nempal said that since childhood, Anushka was always interested in sports, especially running.
“It was only four years ago, when she saw kabaddi players on TV and on the ground, that she expressed her desire to become a kabaddi player. I knew it would be expensive, but I told Anushka not to worry. I told her to figure out the best coaching industry in the city. She had been training really hard to excel…”
Anushka’s coach, Ashish Sirohi, a PE teacher and referee, told ThePrint, “Anushka was young and full of energy. In four years, she played nationals twice, six state level competitions, and one competition by the All India Kabaddi Federation.”
He described Anushka as a fast learner. “Anushka had recently completed her class XII examination, and had also enrolled herself with the NCC. She had been organising NCC camps…”
Talking about her dreams, Sirohi said her idol was international kabaddi player Pradeep Narwal. “She looked up to him, and made sure every girl in her village looked up to her. She broke traditional barriers. She wanted to join either the Army or the Police to serve India.”
(Edited by Niyati Kothiyal)
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