“It is what it is. It was what it was. It will be what it will be. Don’t stress it,” reads the text on the cover photo of air hostess Anissia Batra’s Facebook profile.
A recently added banner right above that photo also reads, “Remembering Anissia Batra. We hope people who love Anissia will find comfort in visiting her profile to remember and celebrate her life.”
Anissia allegedly killed herself by jumping off the terrace of her home in South Delhi on 13 July. Her brother Karan Batra, however, told the police that he suspects foul play – and accused her husband Mayank Singhvi and his family of assaulting her.
According to her Facebook profile, the 32-year-old woman is from Chandigarh, and had studied in Lawrence School, Lovedale. She was working as a flight attendant with Lufthansa, and lived with her husband Mayank and their dog in Delhi’s Hauz Khas area.
The two had tied the knot on 23 February 2016, Anissia’s Facebook profile shows. She had posted several photographs with Mayank, even from what looks like their courtship period before the marriage.
Mayank too had added a photo in 2016, with Anissia’s name tattooed on his body. According to his profile, he is a former Managing Director at Insights Strategy Consultants. It is not known to The Quint what he has been pursuing currently.
‘Sick Men Should Be Exposed’
A few months ago in 2017, Anissia shared a post by a girl who chose to call out her ex-boyfriend publicly for allegedly torturing her.
Anissia had written, “Sick men like him should definitely be exposed. Men like him play on the weakness of a woman but they fail to understand that when she has had enough she will strike back and HARD. [sic]”
Anissia had been quite actively writing against injustice on her Facebook profile. On 28 February 2017, she shared an Alt News post about a JNU female faculty being threatened by ABVP ex-student and wrote: “Pathetic. The police watches while a woman is openly threatened .. this is the state of our country today ... no law and no order ... these are students , our future. I shudder to think what will happen to my country tomorrow if this is my youth my country's future.”
She had also vouched for a noise-free Diwali on her Facebook post. In 2016, she wrote, “I'm pleasantly surprised not to hear any bursting crackers 2 days before Diwali. Keep it up people and let's have a noiseless and beautiful Diwali.”
Anissia’s Facebook timeline is filled with quotes about life, strength and womanhood.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)