Chiranjeevi’s daughter Srija has lodged a dowry torture complaint

HONEYMOON OVER: Srija with Sirish in happier times; the couple with their daughter. Pictures by G Vijayalakshmi Hyderabad, March 15: Chiranjeevi’s daughter Srija has lodged a dowry torture complaint against the man for whom she had once been ready to bring national humiliation for her actor-politician father. Three-and-a-half years since dramatically moving Delhi High Court for police protection against her father for marrying against his wishes, Srija today approached a Hyderabad police station. She alleged her husband Sirish Bhardwaj was harassing her for money though she had already given him several crores and gold ornaments to finance his abortive business ventures. “But of late there has been no end to his greed and it has become a daily practice for him to get drunk and torture me both physically and mentally,” says the complaint. Srija has alleged Sirish wants Rs 1.5 crore more from her to fund his new real estate business. Srija, who was 19 when she fled her parents’ home in October 2007 to marry Sirish, walked out on him six months ago with her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter but has not returned to her parents. She now lives in an undisclosed place in Hyderabad, probably at a friend’s home. Father and daughter have never been fully reconciled since Srija escaped to Delhi with the help of some Congress politicians the night she had married, and made headlines by petitioning for police protection and talking to TV channels. The scandal led to Chiranjeevi postponing his political debut. However, he and Srija later partly made up, and the actor provided a job to his unemployed son-in-law at the film censor board’s regional office. But the engineering college dropout was apparently not satisfied with the minor post. “He started harassing me after a year of marriage. As I had married against my parents’ wishes, and for my daughter’s sake, I remained silent,” Srija’s complaint says. “As Sirish is always expecting money from me, I felt insecure and transferred all my properties to my parents. Later, the harassment increased and they (Sirish’s family) kept a watch on my movements. “Recently, during my cousin Allu Arujn’s marriage, they called me several times to know my whereabouts. A week back he asked me to get Rs 50 lakh.... My mother-in-law was a part of all this.” “We have registered a dowry harassment case,” police commissioner A.K. Khan said. Sirish and his family were questioned today. Sishir had been Srija’s high school senior and, according to her, they had been in love for four years before they married at a temple here with the help of common friends. Both families were against the inter-caste marriage. Sirish was then a final-year BTech student and Srija was preparing for her CA admissions. Chiranjeevi’s family got wind of the wedding and lodged a kidnapping complaint against Sirish, claiming Srija was a minor. Some Congress politicians are then said to have offered the couple shelter in Delhi. The bride and the groom spent four hours on Hyderabad’s streets, changing cars from time to time, till they caught the evening flight to Delhi. In the capital, Srija gave the issue wide publicity, comparing her plight to that of Rizwanur Rahman. Since her marriage, she has never visited her father’s house even for festivals.