Champa Devi has never heard of Zaheera Sheikh. But she too had written to the NHRC and had been pleading before the deities. All for her son, Munna Chaudhary, who disappeared two years ago. Some god told her in her dream that Munna was alive ‘‘on a black hill in Uttar Pradesh’’, and Champa Devi is living in that hope.But the police suspect he was murdered and the body incinerated in a brick kiln. And Champa Devi is their star witness in their case against Mohd Shahabuddin, MP, and five others of kidnapping with the intention of murder, of Munna on January 6, 2001. ‘‘I will tell everything, wherever I am required to. Even if am killed. I want my son back,’’ Champa Devi says. After the arrest of the MP, her hopes have multiplied.She recalls vividly the afternoon when three vehicles filled with armed people stopped in front of her house in Chotpur village of Siwan district. ‘‘MP sahib was sitting inside one. Jawahar Chaudhary, Rama Chaudhary, Pappu Srivastav and Manoj Das too were there. They asked for Munna. I said Munna was away,’’ she says.Champa Devi suspected something was wrong. The Lok Sabha elections were just over, and Munna had openly declared that he would vote for CPI(ML). In the interesting caste dynamics of the village, the Chaudharys who are Yadavs vote for the RJD’s Avadh BIhari Chaudhary in Assembly elections, and for the CPI(ML) in the Lok Sabha. Muslim-Yadav combination is non-existent in Siwan. The 2000 elections were eventful in the village, with booth-capturing, shoot-outs and re-polling.‘‘Ijajul Haque came and told us to vote for Shahabuddin or else the consequences will be bad,’’ says Champa Devi. Haque, a relative of Shahabuddin and a minister in the Rabri ministry, is being investigated by the state police.‘‘I did not disclose where Munna was. But then they said they had come to give him a job as driver. I fell for it and told them Munna was in Rampur village, watching cricket. They went back in a huff for Rampur,’’ she adds.According to officers investigating the case, Munna and his friend Rajkumar Sharma fled on a bike from Rampur as they saw the cavalcade coming. They were chased, and Munna was picked up, but Sharma managed to escape. The vehicle carrying Munna drove in the direction of Siwan town. No one has seen Munna since then.‘‘Next day, I started for the MP sahib’s house in Pratappur, but was too afraid to enter his premises. Then I went to Rustam Babu who had contacts with the MP. He said that he would ask the MP. Then I pleaded with several other people to talk to sahib. One of them got back and told me that the MP had released Munna after some questioning,’’ says Champa Devi.From then started her visits to the police station. ‘‘The SHO at Muffazil police station, Mahinder Rai, asked me to delete sahib’s name. I refused and went to the SP, Minister Avadh Bihari Chaudhary and wrote to the prime minister and some Manavadhikar thing.’’ Finally, a case was registered and a warrant issued against all the accused, but no policeman in Siwan would dare arrest MP sahib.In the two years the warrant was kept frozen, threats and allurements to Champa Devi, her husband and two daughters never stopped coming. ‘‘They asked me how much money I wanted. I told them I gave birth to a son, not currency,’’ says Champa Devi.‘‘I will not surrender. Life is not worth it without my son,’’ she adds, clutching Munna’s passport and driving licence. She had hoped they would take her son to ‘‘Arabland’’ and her daughters would be married off after that. Ironically, that dream led her into the trap when a job was promised for her son.
