When his literary agent in Delhi told Shevlin Sebastian how a true-life incident of mistaken identity and wrongful incarceration would make fora good book, it was not too hard for him to set about finding the protagonist.
In 2018, VK Thajudheen who had come down from Qatar for his daughter’s wedding, was picked up by police for theft. Despite lack of evidence, he was jailed for almost two months and it was only through the persistent efforts of his family and friends to prove his innocence, that he was finally released.
Shevlin’s agent had shown him the follow-up news report which appeared in March 2021 and as a journalist for over three decades, locating Thajudheen was not too difficult a task. Thajudheen’s ordeal has been captured in harrowing detail in The Stolen Necklace.
“Before I contacted Thajudheen, I looked up the case details and then, when I met him I could truly relate to him. Much like me, he was from a middleclass family with children going to school and college. I decided to tell his story because I felt an empathy and affinity with his plight,” says Shevlin.
“I realised that if this could happen to middleclass citizens who had adequate awareness as well as access to media and political figures, it could happen to me too.”
Such happenings in a literate state such as Kerala where even college students have access to those with political clout, serve as a dire pointer as to the goings-on in Bihar and Jharkhand where the uneducated may be coerced into affixing their thumb impression on any document.
According to Shevlin, his research for the book threw light on false cases all over India. “It dawned on me that Thajudheen was one of the luckier ones; there are people who spend anywhere from eight to 14 years in jail before they are exonerated, and then there are some who never get to see justice in their lifetime.”
“This is a huge problem which needs to be address and I hope The Stolen Necklace brings awareness in civil society,” says the author, adding that the police got away scot-free without even a slap on the wrist for this terrible outrage.
Sadly, such injustices prevail the world over. “Even the United States, supposed to be the largest democracy in the world, is staggering under false cases. Once the media shines a spotlight on a particular incident, law enforcement officials come under pressure to solve the case or at least show that they are on it. So, they blindly arrest someone and the real culprits get away with their crime.”
“Horrendous human rights violations are ongoing but since the poor don’t have any awareness of their rights, a lot of tragedies go unreported.”
During his interaction with Thajudheen, Shevlin noted that he was yet to recover from the physical and psychological trauma of having been in jail.
Author and journalist Shevlin Sebastian at Blossom Book House in Bengaluru | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“There has to be some manner of compensation for these people whose savings are spent trying to get them justice, even as the family struggles to meet the bills. Then, when this man comes out, his career is ruined even though he is acquitted without blame. Besides this, the humiliation and stigma the family undergoes cannot be recompensed with money.”
Shevlin says he wrote The Stolen Necklace over a period of six months during the pandemic. “Thajudheen had just landed a new job in Kochi which was about seven to eight kilometers from my place. I would go across to meet him and during our chats, he began to relive those scenes from the past; it was like peeling an onion.”
“Since we met almost every other day, the interview and the writing took place at a parallel pace.”
Flashbacks and lighter moments from Thajudheen’s past intersperse with more harrowing experiences in jail and with prison authorities in The Stolen Necklace, making for a compelling and relatable read.
Published by Harper Collins The Stolen Necklace by Shevlin Sebastian is available in bookstores and online.
