JAMMU: She cannot face herself in the mirror now. The face that earned her the crown of beauty queen has led her to hide it under the veil.
From fame to notoriety, that is the story of Miss Jammu 2001 Anara Gupta. The 18-yesr old was arrested by the Jammu Police for acting in pornographic movies on November 3. A case was registered against her under Sections 292, 292 RPC Immoral Trafficking, cinematography and information technology acts.
A pretty middle-class girl – Anara's father is a forest officer and mother a school teacher – it was the glamour and glitter of beauty pageants that drew her into the dark world of flesh trade. Anara was a bright student in Dewan Badrinath, a reputed school in Jammu, but was only 15 years old when she became beauty queen. The minimum age for the contest is 18 years.
"I had just taken my Xth class exams when I joined a dancing school, Rhythm Divine, to learn Indian classical. My school friends persuaded me to participate in the contest. The organiser, Pawan Sharma, didn't hesitate to flout the age-limit when he saw me.
"My parents were against it, but Sharma came home and convinced them that the pageant was a respectable show," Anara told Times of India at the women's police station here.
Then came the moment of glory. She became the most beautiful girl of Jammu on October 7, 2001. Anara became the talk of the town and her pictures were splashed across newspapers and flashed on TV channels.
Narinder Kohli, one of the organisers and a local cable operator, set the trap right then. "He managed to win my parents' confidence and assured them that he would make me a big star. "Kohli called my mother his sister.
"But I was a perfect victim for him. My parents are out working during the day. One day while I was alone at home, he came and raped me. He threatened that if I disclosed it to my parents, he would shoot them," recalls the girl.
This episode turned out to be a daily routine for Anara, who was too frightened to speak out. Last year in summers, Narinder forced her to accompany him to Himachal Pradesh and told her parents that she would participate in a fashion show.
There was no beauty contest. Instead Narinder made Anara sleep with his associate Yogesh Sharma saying he was a big Bollywood producer and could change Anara's life.
Narinder also told me that he would film Yogesh and me and promised that it would not harm me. I was helpless, alone and immature. So I agreed," Anara says.
The blackmailing started the very next day when Narinder threatened to make the CD public if she did not "earn her keep". "He 'supplied' me to many top people in Jammu and I could never come out of this gutter," repents the young beauty queen.
Anara was meagerly paid and finally everything was over when police recovered her porn CDs in Jammu which were clandestinely sold and circulated in Jammu.
"I got nothing out of it except for shame and humiliation, condemnation and disgrace for my parents and brothers. Middle-class girls should never enter into show biz. It's not for us," Anara cries.
The girl has revealed names of many politicians, officers and girls involved in the sex racket to the police during interrogation. The police have already arrested Narinder and another Siti cable operator. Investigations are on.
Even the makers of the much publicised pornographic film, allegedly featuring former Miss Jammu Anara Gupta, would not have thought in their wildest dreams the kind of business the movie would do. Moreover, with police ’busy’ in investigating the case and in absence of any check, the CDs of this sleazy flick are selling like hot cakes in the city.
Sources reveal that more than 30,000 CDs of the film have been sold in the last fortnight alone, since the case came into limelight, A single CD of the film is selling between Rs 300 to 400, with mostly the youngsters lining for it.
“The movie has been making headlines these days. Naturally the curiosity is building up, therefore the demand for the movie is on rise. Even people from rural and far-off areas are now coming looking for this particular film,” said a CD shop owner, on condition of anonymity.
He revealed that, “a CD, which was earlier being rented for Rs 20 for a day, is now available around Rs 300 to 400 and that too, not on the same day. Your booking is made only at an advanced payment, thereafter you have to wait for three to four days, before you can get the CD.” __________________
Anara says she was introduced to certain "guests" by a man arrested on Sunday night. She claims that this man told her that the "guests" would help her further her modelling career.
"He lured me by introducing me to big-wigs in the glamour industry like producers and directors and the key persons organising big fashion shows in the country," Anara says, adding that her troubles started when she was introduced to a man from Jullandhar, who, she was told, was a big film producer.
He shot a porn film with her, which, she says, was used to blackmail her into entertaining “guests”.
“I was thrown before "guests" one after another to fulfill their hunger for sex, Anara says. "There is no end of the list of those who have used me like tissue paper," she says, adding, "I don't even know the names of some of those whom I slept with. But I cannot forget their faces which haunt me."
Her life, Anara says, is pretty much a mess now. “I wanted to become something in the field of glamour but these people have destroyed my life.”
And as for the man responsible for this mess? Anara knows how she would deal with him, if given a chance: “He should not be hanged as that would be an easy escape for him — he should be made to live through the kind of hell he pushed me into.”
That man is now in police custody predictably claiming innocence. But even if he were to be held guilty, the laws of the land are such that he would be out soon on bail, looking for another Anara. Source: HT
