Chandigarh, Aug 6 (IANS): Fiza Mohammed, aka Anuradha Bali, who had married and was later divorced by former Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan, has been found dead under mysterious circumstances, police said here Monday. Her death had initailly been termed a suicide.
The police Monday recovered Fiza's body from her house in Sector 48 of Mohali town, adjoining Chandigarh.
A police officer said that the body was found in a decomposed state.
"She was alone at home and insects were there on her body. She could have committed suicide 3-4 days ago. We are investigating. The body will be sent for post-mortem," Mohali police officer D.S. Mann said.
Police later said they would take a definitive view once the post-mortem report was received.
The police were called to her house by her uncle after neighbours complained of a foul smell from her house. The police had to break open the door to get inside.
"The police broke open the door. Her body was in a bad shape with insects all over," Fiza's uncle Satpal said.
The neighbours told the police that she seemed to be depressed for the past few months, especially after her mother passed away. She had been living alone in the house. She had several arguments and fights with neighbours in the area in the past couple of years and she was even arrested in this regard.
Originally known as Anuradha Bali and a lawyer by profession at the Punjab and Haryana high court, she was an assistant advocate general with the Haryana government till 2008.
She had gone missing in November 2008 along with then Haryana deputy chief minister Chander Mohan. They reappeared in early December 2008 as a married couple after embracing Islam. They got secretly married in Meerut city in Uttar Pradesh. Both changed their names from Chander Mohan and Anuradha Bali to Chand Mohammed and Fiza.
Following the controversy over his affair and second marriage, Chander Mohan, elder son of three-time Haryana chief minister and political strongman Bhajan Lal, lost his job in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government.
The marriage lasted hardly 40 days with Chander Mohan suddenly leaving her house January 28, 2009 and not communicating with her at all.
Using technology over long distance, Chander Mohan telephoned Fiza in March 2009 on her mobile and divorced her by saying "Talaq, Talaq, Talaq" three times.
Fiza later told reporters that Chand called her up from London and uttered "talaq" three times. He also sent her a SMS to confirm that he was divorcing her.
She had earlier filed a complaint of rape, cheating, intimidation and hurting religious sentiments against Chander Mohan. However, he was given a clean chit by the Mohali police. He had described her complaint as "nothing more than toilet paper".
Chander Mohan later did a volte-face June 2009 and arrived at her house. He even apologised to her and told the media that he had never divorced her.
"I never left, I still love her and I wanted to spend rest of my life with her. I am ready to leave everything, even my family, for her sake. I was under immense pressure and was bound with some prior commitments when I left her house," Chander Mohan had told IANS after returning.
However, within days he deserted her again and later underwent Hindu prayers at his hometown Hisar in Haryana to re-convert to Hinduism.
Both had not been in touch since then.
Fiza had later appeared in a TV reality show shot in Malaysia.