Malayalam Actress Sahana Dies On Her 22nd Birthday: Parents Allege Husband Murdered Her

In what comes as a shocking and sad incident, news of a young and vibrant Malayalam actress, Sahana being found dead on her 22nd birthday broke out on May 14.

The model-turned-actress, who worked for a couple of advertisements and a Tamil film, was married to Sajjad. Currently unemployed, Sajjad was said to have worked in Qatar earlier. The couple lived in a rented house in Kozhikode, where Sahana was found dead, apparently under mysterious circumstances.

According to reports, Sahana's parents alleged foul play in the death of their daughter and opined that her husband and her in-laws would have killed her, owing to the fact that Sahana had suffered domestic abuse.

Speaking to the media on Friday (May 13), Sahana's mother said, "My daughter would never die by suicide, she was murdered. She used to cry all the time saying they were torturing her. He used to get drunk and create trouble. His parents and sister were also torturing her, then I suggested that they move to a separate house. Even after that, my daughter told me that he was behaving badly with her and wanted money. The 25 sovereigns of gold that we gave had been used. She had wanted to meet us on her birthday."

Reportedly, upon questioning, Sajjad claimed his innocence and that he found Sahana dead in the bathroom on Thursday night (May 12).

The News Minute reported a senior police official saying that it is not yet certain whether this was a case of suicide. ACP K Sudarshan told the publication, "She acted in a Tamil venture and received some money for it recently. The couple seem to have had arguments over this. Yesterday was her birthday, but he came back late. The couple had another argument then. According to the husband, he found her dead inside the bathroom after that."

The Police have taken Sajjad into custody for further questioning.

For women in distress help available at, Central Social Welfare Board -Police Helpline: 1091/ 1291, (011) 23317004; Shakti Shalini- women's shelter: (011) 24373736/ 24373737; All India Women's Conference: 10921/ (011) 23389680; Joint Women's Programme: (011) 24619821; Sakshi- violence intervention center: (0124) 2562336/ 5018873; Nirmal Niketan (011) 27859158; JAGORI (011) 26692700; Nari Raksha Samiti: (011) 23973949; RAHI Recovering and Healing from Incest. A support centre for women survivors of child sexual abuse: (011) 26238466/ 26224042, 26227647.