Lucknow, January 2
Twentytwo-year-old Gudiya died at the Military Hospital in Delhi today. She had remained in the media’s eye for weeks in 2004 after her first husband, war hero Arif, returned from a Pakistani prison to reclaim her from her second husband Taufeeq, whose child she was then expecting.
She died after a prolonged illness. She had been admitted to the Army Hospital in Meerut, from where she had been referred to the hospital in Delhi. She reportedly had a miscarriage a few months ago.
While a local news channel reporting her death from Meerut said that she had died of lung infection, the Meerut SSP said she had acute gynaecological problems. She has left behind a 13-month-old son, whom she was expecting when the first husband returned after half a decade.
After the first husband disappeared during the Kargil war, she under pressure from her family remarried a distant relative Taufeeq after the mandatory four-year wait. They were happily married and expecting their first child when the first husband returned, starting a media controversy over the status of her second marriage.
After weeks of a national debate, a popular electronic channel intervened and organised a reality show, inviting all parties as well as Islamic scholars. It was after this show that she was handed over to her first husband.
While her saga inspired film director Prabhakar Shukla to make a feature film on her life, no one followed what happened to Gudiya in real life till she suddenly died. The shooting for the film was almost complete.
