The Curse of That Night (8 page)

Chapter 14

Darsh

“Where the hell in this world is she?”

Darsh was waiting for his sister in the house. He was constantly dialling her number.
Switched off.

The clock showed 1:00 am. Too late. He even called the college reception. The guard picked up the phone and said that the freshers’ party was long over!

“Then where is she?” he wondered.

To say that the incident devastated his sister would be an understatement. While she could see and understand all that was happening around her, the shock kept her virtually speechless.

Darsh was now getting restless.

“Tringg…” his phone rang. Assuming it to be Aarti’s call he rushed to pick it up.

“Hello,” he said.

“Hello, is this Darsh?” came a male voice from the receiver.

“Yes, who are you?” asked Darsh.

“Darsh I am Rajat. You need to come to the city hospital. Aarti, your sister,” said Rajat.

“What happened to her?” he cut him in between.

“We don’t know. We just saw a man throwing her from a black Scorpio on the road. We checked her bag and found a college ID on which this emergency contact number along with your name was written. We even called the police, but as usual no response. So without wasting any time we are taking her to the hospital. Reach there as soon as you can,” he said.

“Thanks
bhaijaan
. She is my sister,” said Darsh half in tears.

“We need to see if she is okay or not. She was in a very bad condition when we found her,” he said.

“I am coming,” said Darsh and rushed towards the hospital.

After Aarti’s night-long ordeal, she was brought back to consciousness in the morning by the feel of water being splashed on her face.

“Hello! Are you okay?” said Rajat.

“Check her bag. There must be some kind of an identity,” said Akhil.

Rajat and Akhil who found her lying unconscious on the road were standing in front of her, as aghast as she was at her bare, bruised and bleeding state.

“Hey, I got a college ID. Look here is someone’s number. We should call this guy, Darsh,” said Rajat.

“Have you called the PCR?” asked Akhil.

“Yes, no response,” said Rajat making a face and dialled Darsh’s number.

“I think we should take her to the hospital now. Her family and doctors will take care of her,” said Akhil.

“Yes, you are right,” both agreed.

“We should call the police,” said Akhil, while Darsh picked up Aarti and rushed inside the hospital along with Rajat and Akhil.

“
Chutki
?
Say something,” Darsh was trying hard to make her speak. But, she was numb.

“
Bhai
,” she could speak only in monosyllables; any recollection of the incident would frighten and sicken her so bad that she would freeze in the middle of what she was saying.

“Do hell with police. First take her to a ward. She needs medication,” said Rajat.

Later in the Hospital’s Ward

“This is a police case. Your sister has been raped,” said the doctor.

Darsh went numb and his mouth dropped open. He paled, raising a hand to cover his beating heart as Akhil put a hand on his shoulder.

“Doctor, please do something. She is not well. Look at her condition. At least give her some medication,” said Rajat.

“Look, no fit person comes to the hospital, ok. Only those people come here who are not well. Your sister is not a special case Mr Darsh. So it’s not a big deal. Hundreds of women are raped every day. It’s a police case. I can do nothing. First go to the police station and file a complaint,” said the doctor. Darsh pleaded but in vain. The doctor left, leaving behind the devastated and violated Aarti.

Our country is so strange. Where pizza is delivered in twenty minutes but police or ambulance takes hours. A country where filing an FIR is more important than saving or examining the victimized patient.

Well, they had no other option but to go to a police station and file a complaint.

Police Station

“PI sir is not here. Wait for some time.”

They were made to wait for hours.

“PI sir has come. You can meet him now.”

“So you two saw her being thrown out of the car?” asked the PI.

“Yes sir.”

“What were you two doing there early morning?”

“Sir, what does that have to do with this case?” asked Akhil.

“Shut up. Just answer my question,” screamed PI.

“We were coming back from the office. We had night shift,” said Rajat.

“Hmmm… madam you have been raped?” he asked Aarti.

Aarti didn’t say a word.

“Hello! Madam
ji?
Aapke sath hua hai balatkaar?”
he asked again.

“Madam
to kuch bol hi nahi rahi hai
. Yes, you. You tell me what you saw?” said PI pointing towards Rajat.

“Sir, we were coming back from the office,” started Rajat.

“
Abey ch****
that I know. What happened next?”

“Sir, a speeding black Scorpio overtook us and she was thrown on the road. There were three men including the driver. We stopped our car. She was unconscious. We called the police but there was no response. So we noted down the car’s number. Here it is,” Rajat handed him a piece of paper.

“Okay. DL 3C 1***. Shukla, check this registration number.”

Ten minutes later…

“Its Omi
bhaiya’s
car,” said Shukla.

“Hmmmm…”

“Wait here,” he asked them to wait and went to make a call.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Omi
bhaiya
it’s me, PI Rathore,” he said.

“Yeah, Rathore. Everything’s fine?” asked Omi.

“Nothing is fine
bhaiya
. The girl you raped is here with two eye witnesses. Why didn’t you kill her? Why did you leave her alive? Now you can be in trouble
bhaiya!”
warned PI.

“
Oye bhen****
. If anything happens to me I will kill you and make sure your wife and daughter are raped too.
Samjha
? So do something. And don’t file a complaint.
Ek peti pahuch jayegi tere ghar
,” Omi tried to bribe the PI.

“Ok
bhaiya,”
said PI half worriedly, half happily.

He returned back to his desk.

“Ok so what were you saying? Yes, you saw three men. Black Scorpio. And this girl. What is your name madam. Oh yeah, Aarti.”

“Yes sir. Sir, please file a complaint,” said Darsh still in tears.

“Since madam is not responding, I cannot file a rape complaint,” said PI.

“But sir she has been raped. The doctor confirmed it. He only sent us to you,” argued Darsh.

“You saw her getting raped?”

“Sir, I… ”

“You saw her getting raped? Yes or No?” asked PI, again this time a bit loud.

“No sir,” replied Darsh.

“Then how can you be so sure about it?”

“The doctor said it sir,” intervened Akhil.

“Now, if the doctor says I am pregnant, so does that mean I am?” said PI. The other constables laughed along with him on his joke.

“Do you all know whom this car belongs to? Omi Yadav,” said PI.

“No sir,” said Rajat.

“You know who is he? Son of MLA Sunil Yadav. He can never do this kind of thing.”

“But your so called MLA’s son did exactly that sir and law is equal for all,” said Darsh.

“Now you will teach me law, you son of a bitch!” PI retaliated in anger.

“Mind your language inspector,” Darsh’s voice was filled with anger.

Rajat put an arm over his shoulder and tried to calm him down.

“Sir, at least file a complaint and send her for medical check-up. Let the medical report decide,” pleaded Rajat.

“Don’t teach me what to do and what not to,” said PI.

“Hello madam? So Omi Yadav raped you haan?” he asked Aarti again.

Aarti was numb.

“Madam
bologi nahi to likhenge kya
?”

“Y… e… s,” she replied slowly.

“Hmmm… Ok. I am filing an FIR. You will get a call for medical check-up. Come then. Now go,” said PI filing a complaint against Omi, Vijay and Suraj.

Darsh brought Aarti back home. He thanked Akhil and Rajat for their help and support.

The time went by at an astonishing pace. But no call came from the police department.

He had just one option left. The only person who could help him in this disastrous situation. Abhijeet. Abhijeet Raichand.

Chapter 15

Aarti

Sex is a sacred act when performed with a man you love. But when the same act is forced violently on you by a monster, dissolute animal, you end up hating every part of your body that was touched by him.

Rape is typically considered to be unwanted penetration of the victim’s vagina, anus, or mouth. This does not always mean by a penis, it can be with any object. Sexual assault is a broader term, including the use of force and threat to coerce any sexual contact and unwanted touching, grabbing, or kissing. Both are expressions of aggression, anger, or the need to feel powerful rather than sexually motivated.

Aarti was filled with self-disgust as she removed the already torn clothes she was wearing and looked at her naked body in the mirror. She wanted to blank out the act completely by effacing her very existence.

Have you ever been raped? Then and only then can you fully understand or even begin to understand how hollow she felt that night.

On the face of it this question may seem callous and bitter. But this is the reality. In our country only 1 out of 50 rape cases is reported. Even worse, in only 1 out of 5 reported cases is the accused convicted. Does that carry an indication of how commonplace the practice really is?

The vengeful penetration of Aarti evoked a strange feeling of hatred against all men. It brought home a fact that the male species has dominated its female counterpart through the ages because of this physical advantage. There is another reason why some men rape women: to control them, to discipline them or to teach them a lesson, basically to show them their ‘
aukaat’
or in retaliation to an affront that the woman might have inflicted upon him. Rape, therefore is not about sex, but power. The use of sexual force or violence is only an exercise to gain control over the victim.

“Aaaah,” she was in so much pain. How much can a person take? She couldn’t believe that they did all this to her and yet there were no consequences waiting for them. She kept thinking about the things they did to her and the true horror of it was getting clearer and clearer. She couldn’t cope and even tried to burn her body, which those assholes assaulted.

“How did this happen? How did my life get to this?” She was trying to be positive but obviously that was next to impossible.

She just wanted to be someone else for a day, for an hour, even if it was for a minute. Just a little break from everything was all that she required. It was more than 5 hours and still every
single minute was haunting her like hell. She was desperate for something to come along and make it all go away but that didn’t happen.

She couldn’t even remember what it feels like to be happy. She was so afraid. She had only heard about rape in news, but now…

‘Hats off to anyone who has been through anything like this and actually survived and came through it intact,’
she thought.

It was truly indescribable how absolutely heartbreaking and painful all this was. She wanted to fall asleep and not remain insomniac eternally.

She went to her study table, took out a pen and paper and started writing. A letter to her rapists…

“Congratulations on getting away with raping me. We all know what happened. You forced me to get in the car. You beat that guy who tried to help me. You dragged me to get into the farm house and then to the room. You knew that you were going to rape me. It was all planned. You brutalised me, savaged my body so much that now I couldn’t even sit down without pain. You bruised me and bit me. You did all this while I begged you to stop, over and over again. You knew you were hurting me, in fact the more I was hurt the more it aroused you. I pulled a muscle in my pelvis trying to get away from you, asshole. I tried to get you off me. I tried to get out of the house.

You have no idea of the pain that you have inflicted on me, my family and friends. I wish one day you will be in fear for your life, only then will you have some idea of what it was like, for me in that room. You should face me and explain yourself. You should face me you coward. You treated me like I wasn’t even human, you wouldn’t treat an animal the way you treated me, but it’s you who isn’t human, I am more a human being than you would ever be.

You may think that you have gotten away with it but one day it will come back on you tenfold and you will get what you deserve and if you even think about doing this to another woman you don’t deserve to live.

Now go to hell you bastard… ”

A drop of tear from her eyes, fell on that paper. She crushed it and threw it away.

She crumbled along the bed and with tears in her eyes went to sleep…tried to...