Mangaluru: A WhatsApp video uploaded by a girl who was allegedly kept confined in a house for falling in love with a man belonging to another religion has caught the BJP in a bind. The girl, who was kept in the house with the help of a BJP leader in Mangaluru, was freed by the Karnataka police recently. She was presented before the court and is now staying at the Mahila Mandiram in Mangaluru under police protection. In the video the girl is seen appealing for help and claimed that she was under house arrest at a house belonging to a BJP leader. The police took action after the video went viral.

Meanwhile, the police refused to disclose more details about the case in view of the upcoming Assembly election in Karnataka. A probe revealed that the house was owned by a BJP leader within Barke police station limits in Mangaluru. According to some people, the BJP leader had only helped the girl’s mother to find the accommodation.

The girl, belonging to Thrissur, had uploaded the video seeking help while she was staying with her mother. She was released on May 1. Though the local police remained quiet about the incident, the news spread locally when the girl was taken to the Mahila Mandiram.

In the video lasting around three minutes, the girl said that this could be her last video. “I am sending this video under severe threat to my life. There is a big risk involved. If something happens to me tomorrow, the blame will entirely be on my mother. There is no end to the sufferings I endured during the past two years. For two months, I was even admitted to a hospital in Kochi for psychiatric treatment. Afterwards, for another two months, I was detained in an orphanage run by the RSS,” she says.

The girl revealed that she was staying at a house rented with the help of the BJP in Mangaluru. “The man who brought me here is a nasty fellow. My mother is now going to our native place leaving me with him. I have not gone to my native place for two years. People there believe that I am employed here and looking after my mother. But that is not the reality,” she claimed in the video.

According to the girl, she gets beaten up whenever she expresses her wish to visit their native place. “My body is covered with bruises. I have received no support from my father’s family members. Maybe their animosity towards my mother prevents them from helping me. I have survived all this torture somehow for two years. But I have now lost hope and is sending this video,” she said.

“The BJP is in full force here. My stay, which was supposed to last just two weeks, has now extended to two years. If they come to know that I have used a phone, they will kill me. Please help me; save me from this confinement,” pleaded the girl, while concluding the video appeal.

After the video came to the notice of the Mangaluru city police, they conducted a probe, which led to the rented house where the girl was detained. When the police arrived to rescue the girl, her mother was also there. A case was registered against the mother for keeping her daughter in illegal confinement. She was later let off on temporary bail. When the girl refused to go with her mother, the Mangaluru second-class judicial magistrate court sent her to the Mahila Mandiram.

The girl managed to procure a mobile phone two months ago and the matter came to light after the video clip sent to her lover on WhatsApp went viral.