What we know about Honeypreet from her vanishing act
"Honeypreet Insan moves Delhi High Court for anticipatory bail." As soon as the news broke on September 25, everybody breathed a sigh of relief and got busy with their lives.
Ever since Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh landed in jail, his consort, Honeypreet Insan- aka Priyanka Taneja, aka Pinky, aka ANU (A for attractive, N for naughty, U for unfortunately girl), aka Papa's Angel, aka the most well-known Indian woman at the moment - had gone missing.
For the last one month, it was a roller-coaster ride that kept everyone glued to their television set. One woman versus scores of police officials, the RAW, the IB (thank god, the Army wasn't deployed), panic, scandal, "inside information," rumour, gossip, hearsay… Phew! Yet, nobody could catch her until she decided to end the hide-and-seek herself.
Here's what she put us through:
When she appeared...
The last time the nation saw her was on August 25, inside a helicopter at Rohtak jail. She was elegantly dressed in a demure black and white chequered churidar kameez, not a hair out of place and cool as ice, while the mighty Baba, sitting opposite and gnawing at a bar of chocolate, looked like a bumbling comedian trying to fill the time before a show.
No one knows how many strings she may have pulled to get into that helicopter ferrying Ram Rahim out of Panchkula. And remember, all the while, Panchkula and Sirsa were burning - we are told at her behest. She reportedly pumped in about Rs 5 crore to fuel the violence (did she?).
Then she disappeared...
For the last 26 days, Haryana police have been on the lookout for her: From UP's Lakhimpur Kheri to Gaurifanta, from Mahendranagar across Mahakali river in western Nepal to Pokhara up north. Airports have been alerted, exit points secured, sedition charges registered, houses of her relatives in Delhi and Gurgaon raided, international alert sounded, plans announced to attach her personal property - still no trace of her.
Then her letter went viral…
A letter, supposedly signed by her (where somebody is vowing to take charge and deposit her somewhere) went viral. Clearly a concoction (hers?). Even in a D-grade Bollywood thriller, nobody would write letters like that before disappearing. Was she a parcel that someone had to write an undertaking for delivery?
Then came her diary…
Then appeared her 103-page "diary", which she finished writing a year before her marriage in 1998 - apparently, revealing the "secrets of her life". From a map of India to notes on top Bollywood stars, to a series of poems (one dedicated to Ram Rahim) to what she called herself: "ANU". Was it really hers? Did she really look, act or sound like a sensitive literary soul, who would clutch her pillow to her teenage bosom and write out her angst?
Then appeared the husband…
Vishwas Gupta hogged the TV studio spotlights with his stories: how he was married to her in 2009 at the behest of Ram Rahim, how he saw the Baba and her in a compromising situation, how she never slept with him (Gupta), how he was turned into a captive, how his family had to give away all their wealth to the Dera, how he was threatened with dire consequences if he uttered one word, how he and his parents were booked in a dowry case and eventually forced to seek public apology for filing for divorce in 2011. Sad. Very sad.
Then came news from Nepal…
At last, she was spotted in Mahendranagar, just 5 km from the Indo-Nepal border. She was apparently seen in a car with Nepal number plate, with three others. Top Dera aide Pradeep Goyal alias Vicky, arrested from Udaipur on September 16, apparently, coughed up the "truth": that after roaming around in Rajasthan - Barmer to Udaipur - she had fled to Nepal. The only bit of news that made one uncomfortable was the police report that while in Nepal, Honeypreet "might have changed her look to deceive the police." (Umm…are we sure that it wasn't just some random woman, who the police mistook to be her?)
Then came the rumours of her death…
Possibly, because, nothing made sense (in fact, everything sounded pretty absurd) rumours started doing the rounds: Honeypreet was dead. According to some, she had been killed by Dera insiders, in course of the power struggle that must have ensued after Ram Rahim's conviction. To others, she was shot by the police.
Then came Rakhi Sawant…
An indomitable and ever-present force, Rakhi Sawant, put all such negativity to rest. "Honeypreet is a very good friend of mine and she is in London," said Ms Sawant, threatening to "expose" Gurmeet in a biopic, in which she would be Honeypreet. (Ahem, hasn't he been "exposed" already? What was special CBI judge, Jagdeep Singh, doing on August 28, then?)
Then she reappeared (almost)…
Yesterday, September 25, lawyer Pradeep Kumar Arya approached the Delhi High Court, seeking a transit anticipatory bail, for early mention before a bench headed by acting chief justice Gita Mittal for early hearing.
Not the same Honeypreet…
As Ram Rahim's consort she came across as a femme fatale in those pictures - all raised eyebrows, lips parted, puckered or smiling, voluptuous and prone to frumpy fashion faux pas.
But now, after all the hard time she has given the police, she is coming across as a hard-boiled composite of canny intelligence and stony glamour, with a talent for getting exactly what she wants.
No wonder, from showing her in plunging necklines, TV channels have started showing her with a rifle and wearing shades that hide the eyes. A bad girl who is really, really smart. And possibly smarter than the Baba.