Former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta, in her own words, is a woman vindicated. After 340 torturous days of ignominy, when the J-K high court today held that she had been kept in wrongful confinement by the police, Anara had this to say: ‘‘I am happy and tension-free today, as I was being associated with a crime I never committed’’.Her family’s rented house in the city bore a festive mood. ‘‘Hamare liye to aaj hee Diwali hai,’’ said her 11-year-old brother Sagun Kumar. Her mother Raj Rani could barely hold back her tears. A teacher by profession, she said: “Ab mujhhe logon ke tane nahin sunne parenge.”Talking to The Indian Express after the HC verdict, Anara recounted how she once dreamed of joining the IAS. ‘‘Now I will stand alone. I have faced a lot humiliation and pain and I now have a dream of starting an NGO so that I can guide young girls.’’ Anara remembers her family’s suffering in the last 11 months. ‘‘The police’s role was very condemnable,’’ said Anara, pointing out that there is great competition in her field. ‘‘I may have been the victim of jealously,’’ she added.On October 24, 2003, Anara was detained by the local police on the charge of producing pornographic CDs. But a formal case was registered against her on November 4, 2003. Asked about her days in police detention, she said: ‘‘The police beat me daily and the media was misguided by the police. My statements to the media at that time were what police wanted to project,” the former Miss Jammu alleged.Today morning Anara’s mother told her of the HC verdict. ‘‘At 11 am when some of my friends from Srinagar told me about the court’s decision. I told Anara. She broke down and cried,’’ said her mother.
