On May 13th, Mr. Ankit from the Cybercrime Department called Princy, my sister in law, to speak with me. I told him the harrowing details of what had happened to me. To my relief, Mr. Ankit offered reassurance, promising to do everything in his power to help. He revealed that one of my recordings (the audio of my father threatening to kill me and my mother) had reached ADG sir, and the case had now been entrusted to him. He requested my legal representative’s contact details and my email IDs, signaling the start of a serious investigation. He even assured me he would try to visit my house in person, carving out time from his busy schedule to do so.
On May 14th, the very next day, Mr. Ankit and Mr. Lakhan arrived at my doorstep, accompanied by three to five others from the Cybercrime Department. None wore uniforms, they entered in civilian clothes. They asked for every detail of my digital life including my Gmail accounts, the last passwords I could recall, the phone number tied to my SIM card, a sim card my father possessed at the time. They demanded the password to my phone. Naively, I complied, clinging to the belief that these were the actions of allies, not adversaries. I handed over my phone, my MacBook, my Lenovo laptop, and my Mac Mini, trusting their explanation that this was to “secure” my devices from my father’s hacking attempts. But something felt wrong. The air was thick with unease, and their assurances rang hollow. They offered no receipt for the devices they confiscated, no names, no designations, just vague promises that my belongings would be safe. They spoke of delays, blaming the ongoing elections, and told me to wait until June 2nd for any resolution. It was the same tired excuse I had heard from every police officer before them. They promised to return, to “help me get out,” but their words felt like a script, rehearsed and empty. (Days later, the truth would come crashing down. Mr. Ankit and his team were not my saviors. They were working with my father all along, complicit in his efforts to hack into my digital accounts and keep me isolated. My devices, my connection to the world, were gone, not to protect me, but to silence me.)
