Fiza found dead under mysterious circumstances

Fiza’s uncle Satpal said that he had last spoken to her on phone on August 1 when she told him to come over the next day. He called her for the following four days but she didn’t respond.

He then came to Fiza’s residence on the evening of August 5 but having received no response,had returned. He came back this morning to enquire about her and went to a nearby police station when he again failed to receive a response. Satpal has stated that he was invited by Fiza for raksha bandhan.

The police said that possibility of suicide could not be determined. The body was swollen and blackened and there was blood or fluid around her. Rohit Mahajan,her friend and former colleague,alleged foul play as he did not think that Fiza could have chosen to kill herself.

“It is odd that she would have gone to sleep in a ground floor bedroom as she always slept on the first floor. In the last seven years she had become very brave and a drastic step like suicide is unexpected from her,” he said.

Sources revealed that a bottle of Blenders Pride was recovered from the house. Sources also disclosed that Fiza had quit drinking a long time back. At around 1.30 pm the body was taken for autopsy at Civil Hospital in an open tempo. It was raining when the body was being transported and there were apprehensions that this would interfere with the autopsy.

“The body was covered and taken under the supervision of two doctors who arrived on the spot. Proper care is being taken and the post mortem is being conducted. Clarity on the cause of death will be clear after the post mortem report is out,” said Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gurpreet Singh Bhullar. He added,“Samples have been sent to chemical examiners which normally take two to three weeks to examine.”

Asked whether poisoning could be the reason of death,he said,“Poisoning cannot be ruled out as excessive consumption of liquor too is poisonous.”

The neighbors said that her absence could not have been marked as she did not have any friends in the colony and kept to herself. “The only time we used to see her was when she had an argument with someone. We were not in communication with her as she swore unabashedly and was prone to violent outbursts,over as trivial an issue as children playing in the park in front of her house,” said a neighbor.

“I last saw her at 2 pm on August 2,when she had come out of her house to feed the dogs. Since that night,though,she did not switch on the decorative lights that she put on her balcony,which she usually used to. Instead,the front lamps in her house were permanently switched on; so we assumed that she must have gone out somewhere,” said another neighbor.

Fiza,a former assistant advocate general of the Haryana,had shot into prominence when she eloped with Chandermohan,the then deputy chief minister of Haryana,in December 2008. The couple had resurfaced at Fiza’s Mohali residence to announce their marriage which did not last for more than 15 days.

She floated Fiza-e-hind,an NGO,after her separation with Chandermohan. Recently,Fiza was arrested by Mohali Police and had remained behind bars for her alleged involvement in an assault on children in her neighborhood.

Also,in a significant development,the police have questioned at length a youth of Sector 20,Panchkula ,who is a lensman with a local TV channel. Fiza is believed to have been a frequent visitor to the youth who was let off after the questioning.

Frequents phone call exchanges were also spotted by the investigating agencies from the call records retrieved from both the mobile phones of Fiza,which were recovered from the spot and found to be switched off.