# In Uttar Pradesh, a woman, who told the police and the court that she was raped, later said she was not raped.
# In Chandigarh, a woman, who told the police and the court that she was raped, later said she was not raped.
In Uttar Pradesh, the accused are sent to jail for 20 years.
In Chandigarh, the accused is let off by the court.
A Tale Of Two Cities & Justice: Either she was raped, or she just fell off a bicycle – What do you think really happened? Read this stinging account by Sr Journalist SP Singh, juxtaposing the two cases. It involves people you know: the son of a governor, a sitting MLA, the House of a former Punjab chief minister, and the conspiratorial silences of top Akali & Congress leadership.

This the second week of this month of August, in Uttar Pradesh, a Bareilly court delivered a judgement. It should make people in Punjab very, very angry, and it should fill all of us with a feeling of gratefulness that we still have such judges in the system. But you should know the facts first. In fact, two sets of facts.

A woman was raped.
She told the police she was raped.
She stuck to her accusation.
But at one stage, she turned hostile.
She said she was never raped.
The judge saw through the deception.
Notwithstanding the woman’s changed version of events, he has sent the three men accused of raping the woman to spend 20 years in jail.

The judge also did the next most logical thing: he ruled that the survivor be charged under Section 344 of the CrPC (giving false evidence).

You can debate the last part.

– She could be a poor woman who the guilty might have bought off with a huge sum of money, or a sum of money that might have seemed huge to the woman. Many wealthy men and women have done worse things for money in life.

– She could be a hassled woman whose troubles would have only increased manifold after she accused multiple strong men of assaulting, raping her. She could be living under massive threats. We have a non-existent system of victim/witness protection, and the dice is often and invariably loaded against the victims. Need we add that we all live in a highly patriarchal society where even the well-heeled women need some real guts to come out and name their predators. So
one can understand if, at some stage, she just caved in and turned hostile. She has to live in the same house, walk the same street, work for people who are similarly situated as her tormentors were. For you and me, she is just a headline in one day’s edition of a newspaper. For her, it is the only world she can inhabit.

BUT more importantly, the judgement, in this case, should remind the people of a similar case in Punjab, one that hit the headlines, and was then buried under the debris of shameful headlines and our collective corrupted conscience. So, let me remind you of the second set of facts:

A woman was assaulted and raped. She – a masseuse providing her services at the house of the son of a former chief minister of Punjab – bleeding after the assault and rape landed up at a hospital.

At the Sector 16 Govt Hospital in Chandigarh, this frail woman was crying, “Saheb raped me,” she was telling everyone. Monsoons were on. There was a drizzle outside. She was shaking, but her story did not falter as she told one after the other person the vivid details.

At the Sector 16 Govt Hospital in Chandigarh, this frail woman was crying, “Saheb raped me,” she was telling everyone. Monsoons were on. There was a drizzle outside. She was shaking, but her story did not falter as she told one after the other person the vivid details. The “Saheb” was the son of a former chief minister who, at the time of the alleged rape, was the Governor of a southern Indian state. Also, “Saheb” was an MLA. A big-time, upcoming youth leader with impeccable credentials —well-read, dad a governor and an author, mom also a politician.

The woman’s statements were recorded. Everything was in writing. The woman stuck to her versions of the events. Elections to the state Assembly were five months away. “Saheb” was an MLA of the party in Opposition. His father had been a close colleague of the Leader of the Opposition. It was going to be a do or die battle. The careers of Amarinder Singh and Parkash Singh Badal were at stake.

This was 2006. But the silence was deafening. An FIR was registered, but no one was trying to take any political advantage. Have you watched the movie – The Silence of the Wolves? Well, it played out in public view and ran house full. We all watched it for weeks, unfolding on the front pages of newspapers, then moving inside, and finally vanishing into the recesses of memory where our shame lives.

The deep Indian state was too committed to the governor and saw him as a man who served its interests at a time when no one in the community would have done it such favours. At one stage, he was excommunicated by the Akal Takht, and punished in a most humiliating manner —tied to a pole with a rope and a plaque slung around his neck that declared that he was guilty.

But politicians remained mum. No one demanded his resignation. No one declared that he or she will stand by the woman who had been assaulted and raped.

But the woman stuck to her version of events. The details matched. There were no loose ends.

“Saheb” was arrested. Section 376 of Criminal Procedure Code. RAPE.

The woman gave statements. Investigations proceeded.

Imagine the pressures that must have been brought on to the sleuths, the cops, the
prosecution! Or perhaps you are such a nice person that you think why would anyone try to pressurise the cops or the prosecution! (We have a very special love for such innocence. I actually have a word for such innocent people, but it is not very printable!)

Father – The governor of a major and politically important state; Mom a politico.
Son – An MLA who had once led a team of armed, apparently very religious men, to take over the Akal Takht with sheer force.
An Indian state that was indebted to the dad.
The state machinery that knew that the MLA son addresses both, the CM and the Leader of the Opposition, as “Uncle ji.”

And still, the case was too blatant. “An open and shut case.” was how police officials were describing the case to the journalists. It is exactly what the journalists were writing in their reports. Those reports are still very much available to casual google-searchers.

Finally, the investigators did not have any option but to state what was so blatantly clear. So, in the court, the prosecution presented its case. A 100-page charge sheet. The victim’s statement. The medical reports. The DNA report. The opinion of the medical board. The reports of the CFSL, the Central Forensic Science Lab.  And a long lineup of witnesses.

Finally, the investigators did not have any option but to state what was so blatantly clear. So, in the court, the prosecution presented its case. A 100-page charge sheet. The victim’s statement. The medical reports. The DNA report. The opinion of the medical board. The reports of the CFSL, the Central Forensic Science Lab.  And a long lineup of witnesses.

Journalists declared the MLA’s career was over. Daddy kuchh nahi kar paye. Uncles ji bhee kaam na aaye.

And then, suddenly, from nowhere, a bicycle ran into the story.

No one had seen this bicycle. In fact, people did not even ask if it was a sporty red one or a plebeian black one. All I remember is that that entire case got trampled under the wheels of this bicycle.

Aaj tak nahi pata chala ke woh kambakht bicycle chala kaun raha tha, woh sadak kaun si thi, mehla footpath par kyon nahi thi, cycle wale ne ghanti maari thi ke nahi… BAS WOH CYCLE AAYA
AUR KISSA SAB TAMAAM HUYA!!!

It was a very wintry December that year, the kind in which hands, feet and senses go numb. Well, I am not sure about hand and feet, but I did see senses suddenly going numb in newsrooms.

In the court, the woman told the judge that she had had a slight problem with her memory recall.

She said “Saheb” had not raped her.
In fact, “Saheb” never assaulted her.
In fact, what had really happened was that she had fallen from a bicycle.
In fact, such was the fall that she had started bleeding.
In fact, the “Saheb” was so kind that when he saw her bleeding, he made sure that she was rushed to the hospital.
In fact, that’s how she had landed at that Sector 16 Govt Hospital that rainy day back during the monsoons.

The prosecution said she had signed the statement in which she had narrated the entire incident. There was no mention of any bicycle in that statement.

The defendant said the statement must have been taken through coercion or forged.

The woman said she did not know what she was signing.

The prosecution said it had videotaped the entire process.

BUT WHO WAS INTERESTED?
The ruling party in Punjab was not interested.
The opposition party in Punjab was not interested.
The governor sahib with the flowing white beard was not interested.
And the woman was not interested.

The judge could no more be of any help. After all, the victim was no more the victim. There was no rape. So, “Saheb” walked free. His white kurta reflecting the eternal sunshine of the spotless career in politics.

ARREY BHAI, JAB COURT KA FAISLA AA GAYA HAI TO AAP KYON SHOR DAAL RAHE HAIN?

The intrepid reporters in some newspapers’ newsroom cried hoarse. They said they will follow it through. They said they will find out the truth.

But the editors were not interested.

ARREY BHAI, JAB COURT KA FAISLA AA GAYA HAI TO AAP KYON SHOR DAAL RAHE HAIN?

The woman went on to live her life.
“Saheb” went on to become the general secretary of his panthic party, a religious siropa around his neck and a sword in his hand.

Everyone was present when governor sahib died.
The entire political spectrum paid rich tributes to governor sahib and people hugged and consoled “Saheb.”

The intrepid reporters gritted their teeth.
The editors remembered the great contribution of governor sahib to peace.

And I am still searching for that bicycle!

If only I knew what it looked like — An Atlas? A Hercules? An Avon? A Hero?

If only judges could be famous for the verdicts they delivered.

You do not recall the name of that judge who set “Saheb” free.

That is why it is important to remember the name of the judge in Uttar Pradesh who sent three men to jail for 20 years each, for raping a woman who later said she was not raped at all.

He is Additional District and Sessions Judge, Bareilly.

In his judgement, the Bareilly judge dwelt upon several cases and Law Commission observations on why witnesses turn hostile, explained how ‘threat and intimidation are among key reasons witnesses turn hostile in sexual offence cases against women in India, understood how difficult it was for a poor widow in rural India’s badlands to muster support, how there could be no one standing by her, and how easy it was for the accused to pressure her into backing off.’

The name of the judge is Nirdosh Kumar.

Sometimes, it is very difficult to live up to one’s name. Thank you, Judge, for doing that.

AAP KYA KYA BHOOL GAYE, AUR KAUN KAISE NIRDOSH SAABIT HUYA, SAB YAAD RAKHA JAYEGA.

There is a cycle in a news cycle. It will keep coming back to haunt you, Saheb! Just as it will keep celebrating a real “Nirdosh” – Judge Nirdosh Kumar!

SP Singh is a senior journalist afflicted with a weird hippocampus disease wherein stale news reports are peculiarly indexed to resonate with breaking news.