"I have been staying in this building for the past three years. On that
fateful night we had just returned home around 11.15 and ordered food.
Around 12.40 or 12.50, the watchman came screaming up, 'Madam has fallen
down; madam has fallen down.' My friends - director B. Menon, Anil Sood
and I went running down. When we reached the spot, we noticed Divya
lying there in a pool of blood. Divya's maid was sobbing, and a couple
was present too. (Later I came to know that they were Shyam and Neeta
Lulla). Shyam Lulla got into his car and we lifted a blood-soaked Divya
and put her in the back seat.
Anil Sood too got in the car with
them. Divya was still breathing at that time and Shyam Lulla asked Anil
to keep shaking her. Divya's maid and Neeta Lulla got into B. Menon's
car while I followed them in mine. Shyam's car reached Cooper Hospital
first. Anil picked her up but she had already stopped reathing. The
Cooper doctors tried to revive her by turning her on her stomach, and
then pumping her stomach but it was too late.
Around this time
Sajid reached the hospital. Say just after five to seven minutes after
we reached Cooper. Initially he didn't know that she was dead, but the
moment the realisation struck him that she was no more he began bawling
loudly in a strange way, as if his own life was being sucked out of
him. Sajid kept cryingfor nearly an hour and then he suffered a stroke
and collapsed.
Meanwhile B. Menon and Neeta Lulla arrived
accompanied by Divya's father and brother Kunaal. On being informed
about the tragedy, Divya's distraught father burst into tears and
screamed loudly, 'Meri beti
maardigayee, meribeti maardi gayee.'His screams kept renting the air
throughout the night. He even banged his head violently on the stretcher
on which Divya was lying, and as a result lost his senses.
"It
was a dreadful sight ... Sajid was lying in one comer while Divya's
father was lying dazed in another, sobbing. (We had to keep holding his
arms and legs so that he wouldn't harm himself in any way). We admitted
Sajid to the ICU while the doctors sedated Divya'scfathercto calm him
down. But even the sedatives could calm him down only for an hour or
so.Soon he sat up again and started screaming his lungs out. Kunaal was
rushed to find his mother who was untraceable even three hours after the
arrived as late asJ.30. She was stunned to see Divya's body, but
couldn't bring herself to cry. In a daze she was taken to see Sajid.
Numbed, she looked at Divya once again and sat down on the staircase,
sunk was more like it.
"In a few minutes Divya's father stirred
up and on seeing his wife went berserk. Abusing her loudly, shouting,
'Yeh teri hi kartut hai,' 'tuneyeh kiya hai', he finally lost control
and gave her a stinging slap. The doctors and the ward boys, after
physically tearing him apart had to resort to tying his arms and legs in
a bid to restrain him. The doctors sedated him again and sent Divya's
mother home. In the meantime we had called up a few of her industry
friends. Govinda was the first to come, followed by
Sajid'smother,sisters, Boney Kapoorand Sanjay Kapoor. Around
5.30 in the morning I returned home because it was all over and
there was nothing further one could do."
(ANIL
MAINI, Film Financer cum Neighbour of Divya Bharati who resided on
the second floor of the building recreated the horrifying midnight
drama. )
by
SALEEM SHEIKH
