Uttar Pradesh 'jalpari' claim 'fake', probe ordered

After film-maker Vinod Kapri termed minor swimmer Shraddha Shukla’s claim of swimming 80 km in the Ganga river daily as “fake”, a probe has been ordered into the matter to ascertain the truth.

Sharaddha, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur town, who was hailed as “jalpari”, had recently embarked on a mission to swim from Kanpur to Varanasi, a distance of around 300 km. Shraddha’s father Lalit Shukla had claimed amid fanfare at Kanpur that she would cover a distance of 70-80 km in a day and would swim in swollen Ganga’s strong currents during the mission.

Lalit had also said that Shraddha would pass through crocodile-infested areas during swimming though she would be accompanied by a boat and would be swimming between the nets in the areas. The claim was, however, contested by Kapri, who arrived in Allahabad to make a film on Shraddha after hearing about the mission. “I felt that the girl’s efforts must be shown to the people and so I decided to film her journey,” Kapri said.

The film-maker, however, later said that the claim was “fake”. “Shraddha only swims for a couple of kilometres when she approaches a ghat (bank) or when there are people around her... she spends the rest of the time on the boat,” he said.

Lalit Shukla and Kapri had a showdown in Mirzapur district on Saturday and both lodged reports with the police against each other. While Lalit accused Kapri of humiliating his daughter, the producer, who had courted controversy with his film “Miss Tanakpur Hazir Hon”, said that he was threatened by Shukla.

Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has asked the Kanpur district magistrate to investigate the matter to find out the truth. “It is a serious matter and we need to know the truth,” said Nahid Lari Khan, member of the commission here.