An advocate from Meerut has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India and Delhi High Court Chief Justice seeking their intervention for the "safety and security" of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's wife Jashodaben, alleging she has been "wrongfully confined at some unknown place".
"It is seriously apprehended that she has been wrongfully confined by certain anti-social elements in collusion with top-level Gujarat security personnel," said the letter written to Supreme Court Chief Justice R.M. Lodha and Chief Justice G. Rohini.
"It appears that she has been abducted and had been kept in wrongful confinement at some unknown place and her life is in danger."
Sources from the Delhi High Court confirmed that a letter written by advocate Hari Shankar was received April 25 but is yet to be placed before Chief Justice Rohini.
Asking the court's direction to trace Jashodaben, Shankar also forwarded the letter to the union home secretary and the Delhi Police commissioner.
Shankar said "her (Jashodaben's) life is in serious danger" and it also needs to be investigated whether she is "alive or not".
"You are requested to kindly look into the matter and the life and liberty and safety and security of Jashodaben without any loss of time."
The letter said that for the first time it was known that Modi was married to Jashodaben.
"She was shown by some news channel in Rajosana village in Gujarat... her interview was also recorded. Suddenly, she disappeared and her whereabouts are neither known nor available for the past many days," it said.
Modi had written Jashodaben's name as his wife in the affidavit while filing his nomination papers in Vadodara, from where he is also contesting the Lok Sabha polls apart from Uttar Pradesh's Varanasi constituency.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader had so far remained silent on his marital status.
Modi, in his earlier affidavits filed in the 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2012 assembly elections, did not reveal he was married.
"... one thing is clear that she is in wrongful confinement and her life is in serious danger and it also needs to be investigated whether she is alive or not," the letter said.
Media reports recently claimed Jashodaben was being kept at one of the ashrams of yoga guru Baba Ramdev in Uttarakhand until the election is over.
Ramdev has, however, refuted the claim.