By then, money was not a problem for the beauty queen who was crowned Miss India in 1983. She was keen to settle down instead to domestic harmony with her husband and children. Now five years later, she is back from the USA with her two sons and her dreams and earnings, dissipated completely -- thanks to a bad marriage that has ended in a messy legal battle, based on a dowry harassment case registered by Rekha against her husband and in-laws.

The Bangalore police have registered a dowry harassment case and arrested Sanjay, her husband, who has been lodged in the City Central Jail. Rekha's in-laws -- Dr BGS Murthy, Rajalakshmi Murthy, Smitha Murthy, M V Sridhar -- have however obtained anticipatory bail.

Rekha's marriage to Dr Sanjay Murthy -- whose parents had settled in the USA -- did not have too auspicious a beginning. Even before Rekha could reachthe States, she realised that her life would not be a bed of roses. But she was optimistic enough to think that she might turn things around and make her marriage work, the former Miss India told the police in her complaint.

The first rude shock that she suffered, she said, came in the form of a pending divorce order between Sanjay and his first wife, Dr Monica. Rekha learnt about Sanjay's first marriage which had not yet ended, only after her own marriage had taken place. The other shock was when Sanjay's parents wanted Rekha's parents to pay off the huge debts Sanjay had incurred as a medical student at Davanagere.

Hoping that everything would be set right sooner or later, Rekha moved to Michigan in the US, with her husband, shortly after marriage. There, according to her statement, she was constantly harassed and treated as a domestic help by Sanjay's parents and unmarried sister -- Sindhu Murthy. A police complaint was lodged at Michigan, and the police there had, at the time, arrested herin-laws.

Meanwhile, the couple had two sons but the situation worsened with Sanjay taking to drugs and alcohol, Rekha's complaint alleges. Sanjay reportedly harassed her constantly and demanded that she get money from her parents. When the demand was not met, Rekha says she was made to seek a job to fetch additional income for the family. When her earnings proved too meagre to meet their demands, she was thrown out of the house in the middle of the night, along with her children.

With nowhere to go, she had no choice but to spend the night on the streets with her children, Rekha alleges in her complaint. She had no means of returning to India either, since her passport was with her in-laws. When she went home to collect it, she was assaulted with slippers and shoes. Sanjay reportedly burnt her and her children's hands with agarbattis. Rekha then went to the police and managed to get back her passport.

In August 1998, Rekha came back to Bangalore and left her two sons in the custody of herparents, only to return to her husband in the US, but the harassment did not stop. In the meantime, Sanjay began issuing threats that he would kill her children, and one fine day he followed it up by returning to India and Rekha was forced to follow him.

Though Sanjay stayed at Rekha's father's house in Indiranagar, he used to beat her up there as well, she says. After much negotiations, she then transferred the Rs 14 lakh that was in her account to Sanjay's account. This was all that she had left of her lifetime earnings as a model. But soon she realised that she stood to lose all that money. And then, she lodged a complaint with the Bangalore police.