Chennai: Pavithra, who went missing in the last week of May, was traced in Ambattur near Chennai by the police on Sunday. It was in the wake of her disappearance that the Vellore police had picked up her former colleague Shameel Basha for questioning, which led to his death in alleged custodial torture. His death had then given rise to rioting in Ambur last week. Pavithra told the police that her decision to leave home, leaving her husband and four-year-old child behind, had nothing to do with Shameel Basha.

“She was staying in a women’s hostel in Ambattur while working in a textile shop. She claimed she was not aware of the developments, including the death of Shameel Basha because she was not reading newspapers or watching television. She last met Shameel in Erode in May. She traveled back by train and instead of getting down at Ambur railway station she traveled straight to Chennai,” police sources said.

It was also revealed that a team led by Vellore superintendent of police P.K. Senthil Kumari had been interacting with Pavithra since Sunday afternoon.The police team tracked Pavithra’s new mobile phone number by keeping an eye on her friends’ mobiles. “We saw a new number in the call list of her friend Suresh working in Chennai. When we took the call list of that new number we found the person using the number had been in touch with two men, Saravanan and Surender, both working in Chennai. When we questioned them, we came to know that Surender had helped Pavithra to get a job and accommodation in Ambattur.

“We are conducting an enquiry with them to know if they had any other role or they had just helped her,” the police said. Shameel had not seen Pavithra since she left Erode, which is what he had told his family members as well as the police. On Sunday, Pavithra corroborated the facts, which indicated that the police may have picked up Shameel wrongly. Pavithra will be produced in Madras high court on Monday because Palani, 37, a resident of Pallikonda, has lodged a habeaus corpus petition in court.

Pavithra, now 24, is a mother of a four-year-old child. But she had told the police she decided to come to Chennai to work because she don’t want go back home as she was not happy with her husband.Based on the Palani’s complaint,  Pallikonda police station inspector Martin Premaraj picked up Shameel Basha on June 15. He was detained for four days in police custody and he developed health complications after he was released and died in Chennai GH on June 26.

The next day riots took place in Shameel Basha’s native Ambur during which members of various Muslim outfits set fire to police vehicles and pelted stones at vehicles plying on the Chennai – Bengaluru highway.