Kochi: Five months after 25-year-old nurse Annliya Huygens' body was found floating in River Periyar under Vadakkekara police station limits in Kerala's Ernakulam district, an all-revealing diary and an 18-page letter she had written to the cops have shed some light on her life at her husband's home.
Annliya, a cheerful nurse who wanted to do post-graduation and find a better job and life, was found dead in August, 2018. The cause of her death is yet to be ascertained. Following her father's complaint to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the investigation was recently handed over to the crime branch.
The police are also not sure whether she had taken her own life or she was murdered.
However, a diary Annliya, who was from a well-to-do family, kept with her has come handy for the cops to find out the harassment she had suffered at her husband's home. After doing her BSc in nursing, Annliya had got a job in Saudi Arabia. Soon, her marriage was fixed with Justine from Thrissur, who was also employed in the Gulf region. However, after her marriage her husband asked her to leave the job and she retuned to India planning to join an MSc course.
In her diary, she listed out her dreams like securing a good job, giving good education to her child, buying a house, a car and having some savings for the future. Alongside, she had also noted down the most memorable events in her life, like the day of her wedding, the day she realized that she was going to be a mother, incidents related to close relatives and friends and even the day she was taken to the hospital by her husband's family to admit her as a psychiatric patient.
The diary has become a crucial piece of evidence in the probe into her mysterious death. The diary details how she was tortured at her husband's house. The police had earlier assumed that Annliya had committed suicide. But officers did not bother to probe into the role of her husband's family in the death. According to court guidelines, if a woman dies within a certain period of her marriage, the cops are legally bound to probe the husband's family's role in the death.
Annliya’s father Huygens Parakkal, who quit his job abroad to pursue the case, rues that the police did not consider his pleas.
Body in Aluva River
Annliya was reported missing on August 25, 2018, by husband Justine. According to Justine, he had dropped Annliya at Thrissur railway station and she had boarded the train for Bengaluru, where she was studying MSc. Thrissur railway police had informed Annliya’s parents, who were abroad at that time, about the missing complaint.
Justine had initially said that he had seen off Annliya at the railway station.
There was no trace of Annliya for three days. On August 28, the decomposed body of Annliya was found floating in Periyar near Aluva. When her parents arrived in Kerala from abroad, the autopsy had been completed.
Justine and his family stayed away from the funeral. They did not show Annliya’s body to her eight-month-old baby.
Her father Huygens has several suspicions about the death. He wonders why Justine did not inform him that Annliya was missing before he filed a complaint. “Even Justine’s relatives and neighbours learnt about Annliya’s death from media reports. All this secrecy points to the possibility of murder,” says the father. He also asked if Annliya was travelling from Thrissur to Bengaluru, then how come her body near Aluva, which is in the opposite direction of her planned destination.
Messages to brother
The main pieces of evidence Huygens have submitted to the police to support his claim are the messages Annliya sent to her brother before her death. The messages described Annliya’s plight at her husband’s house. In the messages, she expressed her fear that Justine and his mother might kill her if she stayed with them. She also stated in the messages that her husband did not allow her to approach the police. Another message of Annliya said if anything happened to her, Justine and his family would be responsible and that they should not be spared.
Though her brother asked her to postpone her Bengaluru trip and find a solution to the troubles, Annliya insisted on going to the Karnataka capital.
While Justine gave a statement to the police that he had seen Annliya leaving in a train, he later stated in the complaint that she was missing from the railway station.
18-page letter
Annliya’s family has found a letter addressed to the Kadavanthra police describing the torture she endured. The letter was written when she was staying with her brother in a flat in Ernakulam. Her family is from Fort Kochi. In the letter, which she never filed before the Kadavanthra cops, she said Justine had married her hiding the fact that he was dismissed from his job and that he had forced her to quit her job also. When she reached his house, she was harassed, Annliya said in her 18-page letter.
Though she was an educated and employed woman, Justine’s family was torturing her physically and mentally, said Annliya in the letter. She was also accused of holding fake degrees, added Annliya.
The torture continued during her pregnancy also, the letter claimed. The situation did not improve after the birth of the child. There was an attempt to distance the baby from her, the letter stated.
She was being severely tortured, but the baby needs a father and she a husband, Annliya said in the letter. She also stated that she was helpless as her parents were abroad.
Annliya was interested in drawing and her diary had an image of a girl writing a diary. There were hands around it with fingers pointing at her.
Huygens’ plight
For Huygens, Annliya was everything. “Though I showed them all evidence, the police did nothing. She died 150 days ago, but the probe had reached nowhere,” he said. He met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan later and the probe was handed over to the Crime Branch.
Neither Justine nor his parents have responded to the allegations.
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