Pathanamthitta: Afsana, who was accused of murdering her husband Naushad, before the latter dramatically resurfaced, has claimed the police coerced her into giving misleading statements.
She is planning to file a complaint at the chief minister's office alleging that police tortured her.
Addressing mediapersons on Sunday, Afsana said she was physically and emotionally tortured in custody. "I was made to say what they wanted me to say," Afsana said.
Naushad's father Ashraf Adoor had filed a missing person complaint on November 5, 2021. But the case had gone cold till the police restarted the probe.
Afsana was taken into custody on July 26 as part of a fresh investigation. The police said Afsana has confessed to murdering and burying Naushad.
"They (police) tortured me for two days," Afsana said. "They said my father and mother will be made accused in the case, that I won't ever see my children and my younger brother won't have a future," she claims.
The police checked a cemetery near the rented property at Paruthipara in Pathanamthitta, where the family had stayed, but in vain. Afsana was paraded on a trail of evidence collection thereafter. The police team dug in places she pointed.
"I pointed in every direction they wanted me to point," she claims. First, the cops checked the premises of the house, then they excavated inside. A piece of shirt, presumed to be Naushad's was found.
Then the cops said she changed her statement. According to reports shared by the police, she told them Naushad's body was desposed of in a river but then it was said the remains were moved in an auto.
Police torture and Naushad's return
Two days after Afsana's alleged confession to murder, Naushad reappeared. He was tracked down to an estate at Thodupuzha in Idukki.
The cops booked Afsana for misleading the investigation.
Meanwhile, Afsana has claimed the cops made her life miserably in custody.
"On the first day, they gave the lunch my father had brought. But later they stopped giving that. They gave instructions to lady cops to hit me if I tried to sleep in the cell. They poured water on my face whenever I dozed off," Afsana has claimed.
Dowry harassment, ready for divorce
Nausha of Padam at Kalathoor married Afsana from Nooranad in 2017. In 2021 their family, now with two children, moved to a rented house at Paruthippara.
Upon his return, Naushad told the police that Afsana used to hit him and that he wanted a divorce.
Afsana says its the other way around. "
Naushad hit me and threw my child, who was just one year old then, before he left," she said.
"He tortured me over dowry and repeatedly hurt me. I am willing to go ahead with a divorce," she said.