Two days after she went missing from her residence on Tuesday morning, Chandramukhi Muvvala, a well-known trans activist who is contesting the Telangana polls from Goshamahal, was found on Wednesday night.
This came a day after Chandramukhi’s mother, Anitha Muvvala, represented by lawyer Vasudha Nagraj, filed a habeas corpus writ petition in the Hyderabad High Court. Admitting the petition, the court had asked the Jubilee Hills police to produce Chandramukhi before them by 10:15 am on Thursday.
Chandramukhi had reportedly been missing since 8:25 am on Tuesday, 27 November; based on the missing person's complaint, an FIR has been filed. The police said that they are reviewing CCTV footage.
According to sources, Chandramukhi turned up at the Banjara Hills police station along with her lawyer and some activists late on Wednesday night.
Speaking to TNM, Anitha confirmed that Chandramukhi had been found and was doing okay. She is expected to be produced at the court at 10 am.
"She has come back. She was abducted by someone and intimidated severely, she's dazed and disoriented. She'll share what happened to her before the court," Vasudha Nagaraj, her lawyer, told TNM.
“She went to sleep at 5 am, and asked someone to wake her up at 7 am. The last call she received was at 8:17 am, and her phone was switched off somewhere at Yaramanzil Colony, 2-3 km from her residence in Banjara Hills.”
“She was noticed missing since 8:25 am and the door of her house is locked from the outside,” the Banjara Hills SHO said.
Chandramukhi, a well-known face in Hyderabad’s trans community, is contesting from the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad on a Bahujan Left Front (BLF) ticket. She will be taking on bigwigs such as the BJP’s Raja Singh and the Congress’ Mukesh Goud. Vinu, who is tasked with the campaign schedule, told the press that Chandramukhi would inform him where she was going, and who she is meeting. “We approached the police only at 2:30 pm. We waited, hoping she would come back by then,” he said.
Vinu also alleged that a person who was found lurking around her house in the CCTV footage could be involved in her disappearance.
“A white SUV came to the premises at 7:58 am. A person could be seen in the video looking or searching, either for someone or for a location. We suspect that this person is somehow linked to her disappearance.”
Anitha Muvvala, Chandramukhi’s mother, said that she last spoke to her daughter between 8 and 9 pm on Monday, 26 November.
“We talked about how the campaign was going and she told me she was happy with the way things were progressing.”Anitha Muvvala, Chandramukhi’s mother.
"We fear for her safety and condemn the lack of safety measures for her and for other women and transgender candidates, which acts as a strong force that dissuades transgender persons and women from joining politics. Chandramukhi's campaign kicked off just one day before she went missing," a press release of the Telangana Hijra Trans Samiti said.
Chandramukhi is the first and the only transgender candidate out of 3,584 candidates contesting in the upcoming Telangana elections on 7 December.
In her interview with TNM earlier this week she expressed her intention to fix the bare basics in Goshamahal.
“I'm not promising them the world and I won’t promise to provide each and every person with a job and that I will do everything. Road facility is terrible, roadside areas and by-lanes are in bad shape, housing schemes are bad; we don't even have water facilities in some areas. Drainage collection is bad and there is a division between the rich and the poor. I will remove that first,” said Chandramukhi to TNM.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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