It was on October 9, 2004, that the "VIP controversy" exploded on Kerala. It was the day the then Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan visited the victim of Kiliroor sex scandal, 17-year-old Shari, at Matha Hospital at Thellakom in Kottayam.

"The victim became nervous after the visit of a VIP. This VIP should be found out," Achuthanandan told reporters. A day later, on October 11, Achuthanandan shot a missive to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, saying that the VIP visit had taken place when the girl had shown signs of recovery.

"Ever since she has not stopped crying. Immediate steps should be taken to find out the VIP who had deeply upset the victim and caused her condition to worsen," VS said in the letter.

There was speculation that a top CPM leader was the VIP. The very day the CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan issued a statement saying that there was no such VIP and that it was a "media creation".

Repeated calls to Achuthanandan's closest aides, elicited just one reply. "VS had only told us that the doctor (treating Shari) had told him that the girl had become frightened after the visit of a VIP. He also does not know who the VIP is."

Realising that his VIP remark had hurt his party, VS made a subtle attempt to deflect the suspicion away from the CPM. He went with the official CPM version. He told reporters on October 20 that it were "certain media friends" who had informed him that "VIPs" had visited the victim at the hospital. "Among them are ministers, former ministers and high ranking police officials," VS said.

Within a month, on November 13, Shari died. Post-mortem report had revealed excess quantity of copper in her blood. This was exactly three months after she was hospitalised in Kottayam District Hospital, on August 13. On August 15, on India's 57th Independence Day, she had given birth to a girl.

Shari, who had failed in her class X exam but was interested in dance and modelling, is said to have been lured by promises of a career in serials and films by an "agent" named Latha Nair. The girl was then taken to resorts and other obscure places to be presented before "influential clients".

Deepening the mystery was the mass suicide of a five-member family of an astrologer named Narayanan Namboodiri at Kaviyoor in Pathanamthitta. It was said that Latha Nair had close connections with this family, too. Namboodiri's daughter Anagha had also travelled with Latha Nair to various places. Shari's parents had later said that Latha Nair and Anagha had visited Shari at the hospital.

After Shari's death, VS avoided references to the 'VIP'. At the press conference he called on November 14, the day after Shari's death, he said murder charges should be slapped on "resort owners, top police officials, a cinema-serial producer and Latha Nair".

On November 17, he also said that if CPM leaders were involved, this too should be investigated and brought to light. At that press conference he was reminded of CPM leader P K Sreemathi's remark that Anagha (Namboodiri's daughter who had committed suicide along with the family) was not sexually abused.

"Is she the authority to say this," was Achuthanandan's angry response. But he quickly composed himself and said: "Don't try to make me say things that would trap Sreemathi."

Later, in a letter Shari's daily wager father C N Surendra Kumar wrote to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in 2007, he had named the VIPs who had visited his daughter at the hospital.

"The first person to meet my child was Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. I was also with him. He did not say anything. He just looked at my child, placed his palms together in a gesture of prayer and left," Surendran said. Then came Kerala Women's Commission member Lissy Jose. She took the girl's statements in her mother's presence.

Then came All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) leaders P K Sreemathi, M C Josephine and others. "It was only Sreemathi who had talked to her alone. I was out and my wife was on the sixth floor of the hospital with our granddaughter (Shari's child). So we don't know what she told her. But after her visit, our child developed breathing problems and chest pain," the father said in the letter to VS. It was after Sreemathi's visit, according to the father, that the doctor banned visitors to the room.

On October 7, 2004, nearly a month before Shari died, Sreemathi had admitted to the media that she had indeed visited the victim. "I don't know whether I am a VIP but the child panicked when she saw me. I consoled and calmed her. Then the mother (Shari's) told me many things that I don't intend to share with the media. But if the police ask, I will reveal," Sreemathi had said.

But Shari's father, in his letter to VS three years later, had said that his wife was not there when Sreemathi visited Shari. When VS received the letter, Sreemathi was minister for health and family welfare in his cabinet.