Shweta Basu Prasad, the young actress who was arrested for prostitution some days ago, has at least one person speaking out in her defence - her TV mother Sakshi Tanwar. Shweta, who was a successful child artist with a National Award-winning role in 2002 film Makdee, played the daughter of Sakshi's character Parvati on popular soap Kahani Ghaar Ghar Kii for a while.

In an article published in a news paper, Sakshi describes the then-nine-year-old actress as "very sweet and talented" and says that Shweta wished her on Mother's Day for each of the 13 years that has passed since. In her piece, Sakshi asks why Shweta, now 23, has become the focus of the prostitution scandal while the identities of her "businessman" clients have not been disclosed.

Sakshi writes: "Honestly, I'm quite disappointed that the media reports have so selectively guarded their identity and names. I have no interest in knowing about those degenerate "businessmen", but I would have loved to see their names come to the fore so that their families - mothers, daughters, sisters and wives - and friends would get an insight into their recreational habits."


Sakshi also writes about where Shweta is right now and the fact that her real mother has not been allowed to meet her yet: "I don't know her reasons and problems, and I don't know any solutions either... All I know is that she is kept in a remand home and that she has apparently given a statement accepting it. At least she has been brave enough to accept it (as per the reports). I had been intending to write this piece since I got to know about it, but I wanted to first speak to her. Unable to do that, I did manage to talk to her real life mother today. How many of us know that her mother has not been allowed to meet her in the remand home yet? How many of us know that the attending judge has told her mother that she is cheering up kids and other women in the remand home by talking about music and life. Her mother is feeling deprived, dejected and even defeated...and understandably so.

She has a few very valid questions - "My daughter is not a criminal, why is her name being maligned like this? What if this irresponsible reporting along with her photographs by the media has a long-lasting scarring impact on her? What if tomorrow she finds it impossible to carry the bitter remains of her life and takes a drastic step, God forbid..."