Tweet alleging rape spreads alarm in Mumbai

A tweet by a 49-year-old, mentally ill woman from Kharghar led to a wave of solicitous inquiries in the online world and embarrassment and distress for her family members. Many activists and journalists across the world were alarmed when they read a tweet by Meenakshi Pillai (name changed) that read, “I think I should end my life. My daughter is exploited by her own biological father. No police... no women’s commission is able to do justice.”

Pillai, an M Com, B Ed graduate who lives with her husband, Shankar (name changed), and three children in Kharghar, sector 19, had made this tweet on May 31. But it became a hot topic of
discussion in the online world only on Saturday.

While Pillai was unavailable for comment, her family members said she teaches in a ‘speak well’ English tutoring institute in Panvel. When contacted, Pillai’s 25-year-old daughter Mohini (name changed) who, according to Pillai’s tweet was raped by Shankar, said, “My mother is not in her senses and is completely out of her mind. All her allegations are baseless. My father is the best father anyone can have. Even after such behaviour from my mother, he has never taken any action against her. We as a family have always been supportive of her. We allowed her to be involved in whatever activities she wanted to, so that she doesn’t sit idle at home. That’s why we even created a Twitter account for her. But now that has boomeranged on us.”

Inspector Vikas Salvi from Kharghar police confirmed that the allegations made by Pillai were baseless. “The case was closed after we found that the allegations made by her against her husband were baseless. We advised the family to get her treated as soon as possible,” Salvi said.

The family has been having a tough time ever since Pillai started making these allegations against her husband. “She was always paranoid. She has wild mood swings and can get angry and aggressive for no reason. I have gone through all that my whole life and never said even a word back to her. But the problems have gotten out of hand over the last few months,” Shankar said. “The problems started when she suspected me of having an affair at my workplace. We have a female peon and whenever my wife called on the office land line, the peon would pick up. She then began to get suspicious. She started calling up my colleagues and telling them I was having an affair. But my colleagues told her it was not right on her part to think that way about me.”

According to the family, her suspicions about her daughter getting raped started soon after she consulted an astrologer. Her eldest daughter, Mohini, was suffering from a slip disc condition, and her father took her to Kerala for Ayurvedic treatment. On her return, Mohini resumed work, but her health issues flared up again as her job involved sitting continuously before a PC. Her mother then took her kundali to an astrologer, who told her that her daughter should not be having any health problem and that she should consult a gynecologist.

“After the astrologer said that, she started creating her own stories in her mind and we were not aware of it. Every time I spoke to my daughter, she would give us suspicious looks. We learnt about these allegations when she first spread the rumour in our housing society. She then approached the women’s commission and the Navi Mumbai police. But they stopped entertaining her once they realised her allegations were baseless. And now she has found a way to gain attention through Twitter. I only allowed her to learn how to use a PC a few months ago. That has back fired me. I am totally shattered and don’t know what to do,” said Shankar.

He added, “She wanted to start her own newspaper named Kharghar Navi Mumbai Times and I was even ready to fund her. She dropped the plan when she did not get her registration number. I have supported her in everything she wanted to do and never did anything against her wishes even during the worst days.”