by BS Murthy
what they crave all the while—sexy fare on the sly. Wiser to their false sense of outrage, he came to favor more of them as a service to the weaker sex."
Listening to her, even as the judge and the lawyers, not to speak of Gautam, were dumbfounded, Suresh wished that mother earth had caved in underneath his feet.
"Oh how disgusted I was with that fiend then," she continued after a pause, as though she herself needed time to digest what she herself had to reminisce for her testimony. "Involuntarily hating his very presence, nay existence, unmindful of my own safety, I pounced upon him. As he lost control at the wheel, the M ercedes collided with a roadside tree. When I regained consciousness, finding him unconscious, I got panicky. Slowly as I extricated myself from the wreckage, he began moaning feebly. What a relief it was! Why, his death would've compromised my own position further. Hiding at some distance, I had seen him come out of the car and manage a lift back to the city. Noting the registration number of his car, I too managed to hitchhike back to the city."
All the while, Suresh could not desist himself from staring at her in admiration as the rest were too bowled over by her spirit to take their eyes off her.
"Reaching home, I tried to figure out my future," she continued her tale of woes after having some more water. "My first impulse was to put all that behind me and get on with my life. But then, I realized that while I lived in guilt, he would be outraging many more. So, I decided not to push my shame under the carpet, but to make him accountable for his guilt.
I called up my fiance and told him all. Even as he seethed with rage, I urged him to help me act against the rapist. All the same, as I cried in shame, he thought of advancing our marriage to minimize my trauma but seeing me determined to bring the guy to book, he applied his mind to the situation on hand. He felt it was possible that the culprit might have died of head injuries by then. In that case, had someone seen me with him, the police would be seeking her for questioning. Whatever, it would be an idea to clip my nails and preserve them along with my undergarments. Well, they would come in handy if it got messy on his account and to pin him down later on a different account that is if he were to survive.
Well, I wanted to report to the police forthwith but he counseled caution. He said the defense lawyers invariably give a coat of consensual sexto forcible molestations in their bid to blight the complainants. So he felt that before going to the police, we should make our case watertight against the worst cunning of the best of the defense lawyers even."
Justice Sumitra couldn't resist herself from looking at Mehrotra whom she found gaping at the witness in all admiration.
"When we checked at the R. T. O's Office, we realized that he survived the accident,' the woman went on about her narration spiritedly, unmindful of the accused's predicament. 'When we were all set to report to the police, the M ehrauli M urder Case hit the headlines. Well, we followed the developments closely, and when it came for the trail, I came veiled to the court.
How it pained me to see what was on offer for the goddess of justice. As it became apparent that the decks are being cleared by the cunning defense for the criminal to walk free, I decided to alert the court about its consequences to the society at large. M s. Justice, here is the incriminating material I mentioned in my deposition that I wish to submit in support of my averments. I pray to this honorable court to examine the evidentiary value of my deposition against the accused who is a habitual rapist. Ms. Justice may deem it fit that my case be taken up separately and direct the police to probe into my allegation."
When she finished her testimony, M ehrotra, who had regained his wits by then, rose to cross-examine her.
"Who's your fiance?"
"His identity too is irrelevant to her testimony," Paranjape intervened with renewed vigor. "I submit it may be left as her affair."
"Granted," ruled Justice Sumitra.
"Let me see the relevance of her evidence,” said M ehrotra superciliously to Paranjape before he went on pressing deviously on the witness. "You've stated that M r. Suresh had an intercourse with you, didn't you?"
"I said he raped me," she corrected him.
"What's a rape if it's not an intercourse?"
"It might help," she said nonchalantly, "if you check up with your dictionary. Rape is an intercourse with an unwilling woman qualified by force."
"Oh, I see," said Mehrotra unable to hide his admiration for her meticulous preparation.
"By the way," said M ehrotra hoping to trick her, "are you a virgin?"
"Didn't I state that he raped me?"
"But were you a virgin," said Mehrotra menacingly, "when the accused allegedly raped you?"
"Yes."
"Yet you should've had some idea of lovemaking," said M ehrotra without a let up, "say, from friends or through pornography."
"Well.”
"Can you please tell this honorable court," said M ehrotra unabashedly, "how your sexual union with the indicted did differ from what you had imagined it would be?”
"I was looking forward to the pleasure of penetration,” she replied as a matter of fact, "but the rape left me in pain and despair."
"You being a virgin at the time of the alleged rape," said M ehrotra, seeing a chink in her amour at last. "How would this honorable court know whether his force led to rape or your consent led to his force? After all, deflowering involves some force, does it not?"
"Objection," roared Paranjape in disgust, "for this devious question."
"Wish the defense draws itsown lines," said thejudge in indignation.
"Ms. Justice may please appreciate the validity of my question in the face of her accusation," said M ehrotra unmoved. "Having alleged that my client had raped her, she spelt out her understanding of rape. Thus, it is imperative for the court to know whether the force allegedly used by M r. Suresh Prabhu was meant to deflower her willing self."
"You may proceed," said Justice Sumitra helplessly.
"You said you were a virgin at the time of the alleged rape and it is a fact that force is an ingredient of defloration," M ehrotra sounded persuasive. "Now enlighten this honorable court why the force you felt was not the part of a consensual deflowering."
"The differing womanly responses differentiate the willing defloration and forced penetration," she said to the relief of Paranjape who by then felt that his rival was wresting the initiative from him.
"What are those like?" pressed Mehrotra not wanting to give up without a fight.
"I presume the pain of defloration would make woman hug her man for her comfort,” she said with all conviction. "But the revulsion of rape would prompt her to hurt the beast to resist."
"If the accused had indeed raped you, as you allege," said M ehrotra, not the one to relent, "could you recall his manly attributes?"
"As I told you," she said dismissively, "I was subjected to the trauma of rape. If it were a case of lovemaking, maybe, I would have satisfied your curiosity."
"I appreciate your boldness," said M ehrotra making ground for a future assault. "But did you experience the nuances of lovemaking later, that is, after the alleged rape?"
"Objection, M s. Justice!" Paranjape could not control his indignation.
"Objection sustained," ruled Justice Sumitra.
"It's a matter of life and death for the accused, Ms. Justice," said Mehrotra with all his persistence. "It is imperative that she should apply her mind and review whether the intercourse the accused allegedly had had with her was indeed rape or defloration in a moment of her own weakness."
"You might reply,” motioned J ustice Sumitra to the accuser.
"I didn't have any sex either before or after he raped me,” she said animatedly. "And I suppose you cannot ask this honorable court to direct me to have sex now and revert on the matter later.”
"What if in repentance the accused had sought your hand in marriage?" said Mehrotra, bowled by her reply, but yet floating a trial balloon. "Were it possible that you would have seen it as an opportuni
ty to redeem your lost honor?"
"I caution the defense not to stray from the path of defense," said Justice Sumitra who was no more amused by Mehrotra's tactics.
"No. Never!” replied the girl, all the same.
"Sorry for the transgression," said Mehrotra in apology to Justice Sumitra, but pursued the matter as menacingly as ever.
"I allege that you had a one-night stand with the accused," said Mehrotra to the woman, to the indignation of all, "that was for reasons best known to you. As your fiance smelt a rat, you made it up as rape to pull the wool over his eyes. Once this trial commenced, you were constrained to impress him about your averred innocence. That is why you are going to lengths to condemn my client to save your skin."
"I say it's all rubbish!" said the woman losing her cool for once.
"M iss, mind your tongue," said M s. Justice to the witness.
"I do apologize, Ms, Justice,” said the witness.
"Now you may answer my question," said M ehrotra.
"You would know that Dostoyevsky said logic is a double-edged sword that cuts both ways," she said rather aggressively. "By the same logic does it not seem you have been going to lengths to make his rape look like my invitation to mate?”
"Isn't the accused young, handsome and wealthy?" was another Mehrotra poser to the defiant girl. "Won't that make him an eligible bachelor otherwise? I'm sure you cannot dismiss that as rubbish."
"Well, it's possible."
"Were it possible for some scheming girl to induce him into sex to blackmail him into marriage?"
"Speaking for myself," she said, "I had no such idea."
"I allege that you resorted to the very same tactic," said Mehrotra with such finality that would have veered the vacillating towards him. "Since you failed to force him into your wedlock then, now you want to see him led to the gallows."
"That way, you can hypothesize anything and everything, can't you?” she said exposing Mehrotra's faux pas. "But, if it were the case, why could he not even recall who I am?"
"What if he had paid sex with you?" Mehrotra continued recovering from his unusual error. "I allege that you, knowing the value of your client, preserved the proofs of that coitus for future exploitation. As the Mehrauli Murder Case made the headlines, you began boasting to your clientele that the accused slept with you. With the word of mouth, it reached the men behind Shanti's murder and they made a deal with you to implicate my client. I tell you that you are acting at the behest of the real perpetrators of the crime in the guise of aiding justice."
"Didn't we see all this coming?" said the woman spiritedly. "The day after the incident, I moved as a paying guest with an elderly couple whose credentials even you might not question. If summoned, they would testify to the fact that I received none at home, except my fiance, that too in their presence. They would vouch that I never left home once ever since. For the first time, I came out straight here, that too with that old man in tow.”
"Well, that still does not disprove it was not a consensual sex after all," said Mehrotra shifting the burden of proof on the witness.
"You can get a measure of my consent from the entries in the relevant diary," she said, pulling out ten neatly bound diaries from her handbag. "I've been maintaining a dairy for ten years now."
As M ehrotra responded in wonderment, she showed him the blank space against 01 December 1974 and the entry of the next day that she asked him to read aloud.
'Oh, God how could this happen to me? 1 read Mehrotra hoping to find a loophole still. 'What an accursed day yesterday had been. How can I ever forget my shame in spite of 'his' understanding? How have I been dreaming a love drive on the highway of sensuality? What a cruel fate that ordained a head-on collision with a rapist's lust! How was I fantasizing the ecstasies of lovemaking when the hammer of lust shattered my soul? May God bless me to forget that beastly experience, that's all I ask for in life.'
"No more questions," said Mehrotra seemingly resigning after scanning a few more entries.
"Have you got anything to say?" Justice Sumitra asked Suresh.
"I shamed her then and I feel ashamed now," said Suresh with all remorse. "And it's also true that I kidnapped, raped and killed Shanti."
"I request the learned judge to adjourn the proceedings," submitted Mehrotra, the 'never say die' lawyer. "It is clear that the accused is upset about a past misdemeanor not related to the present accusation. It's his guilt complex in this case, that's conjuring up his guilt in the case on trial as well."
"The trial is adjourned," said Justice Sumitra as Gautam was aghast and Mehrotra remained clueless for once.
Chapter 6
Dilemma of Qualms
On their way back to his place in Gautam's Rolls Royce, Mehrotra was mad with Suresh for undoing his hard work.
"Didn't he handle the ball on 99?" he said with irritation.
"How are we to make the umpire lookthe other way?" said Gautam feeling helpless.
"Justice Sumitra is known to err on the side of the accused," said Mehrotra pondering over the turn of events. "But what can be done when your son wants to hang himself?"
"Hide the rope,” said Gautam characteristically.
"Oh, how I've put my prestige on the line," said the indefatigable lawyer.
"On the line of my son's life, that is," said Gautam. "And I know with you around it's not over as yet."
"Now it's left for Dr. Prakash Gupta to give a psychic turn to it all," said Mehrotra contemplatively. "How that god-dam dame turned the case upside down!”
Soon Dr. Gupta was pressed into service to heal the fresh wounds of the emotionally stressed under-trial. It was not long before the specialist detected the altered undercurrents in the accused's psyche induced by the damning testimony of that woman. It seemed as if his live encounter with his past misdeed induced myriad images of life and death in his afflicted mindset. In his altered perception, the courage to face the calamity showed by her seemed to have put his own cowardice to stand trial in a poor light. Further, compared to her conviction to overcome her trauma, his inability to handle his life shamed him no end. The more he looked for the differences in their personalities, the more he saw the poverty of his own character. Moreover, he could see how her spirit to uphold justice contrasted with his father's cunning to subvert the same for his acquittal. As the conflict got crystallized in his mindset, his outlook towards life underwent a radical change.
'Why am I hankering for life after all?' he thought at length. 'Going by my past, it's worth nothing, isn't it? And what value addition acquittal by trickery would bring in? Why not face a fair trial and take the sentence as it comes? If they spare me the rope, I would rebuild my life; otherwise, it's a journey into the unknown. Let me see what life has in store for me.'
But Dr. Gupta was not the one to buy the argument. He said that one owed to one's life to preserve it at all costs. He took pains to convince the afflicted that it was not he per se but his misogamist mindset that was behind his crimes. It was only appropriate that he saw his own commissions and omissions in that light. It was time he desisted from his psychological self-flagellation. Why his true redemption lay in living a life of a reformer. At last, the psychiatrist succeeded in infusing in the afflicted the desire to overcome the present to sort out his life in the future. But, as the good doctor made a compelling case for Sneha to testify in the court so as to earn him a lenient sentence, Suresh was thrown into a dilemma of qualms.
'Maybe, I might escape the noose but would she be able to stand the shame of her owning up all?' he thought reflectively. 'In spite of everything, wouldn't she be clinging to her honor as dearly as I might like to hang on to my life? Anyway, what is so worthy about my life that it should be saved by embarrassing her before the Justice and the others? Why should I let her pay the price for my sins? If her peccadilloes are exposed in my defense, won't she stand naked in the court, though in camera? Won't she then die
in disgust in the court itself? Don't I know of her haught
y nature? Why should I have more blood on my hands, and for what avail?'
Overwhelmed thus, the accused expressed his aversion to the expert's envisaged line of defense. In turn, that threw Dr. Gupta into a dilemma of qualms.
'Maybe, he's right in not wanting to compromise his mother,' thought the psychiatrist. 'And it is even indicative of his altered sensitivity, isn't it? But is it right for me to keep quiet, for that could signal his death? And then, how ethical is it to damn a woman to save her son? I would be damned if I testify, and no less damned if I don't. What a dilemma of qualms! Acquittal is a long shot but my testimony might save him the rope, wouldn't it? Yet, if I keep off, it looks like the noose for him. Then, will I ever be able to live in peace, having failed to save a life when I could help? But still, how can I flout my professional ethics to go public with a private admission? What if I breach the code of conduct for a perceived good? Would I be able to do that with a fair conscience? Oh no, while the disclosure might help the son, it would devastate the mother, no mistaking that. How are the interests of the duo at loggerheads hindering my vision? Who'sthere to guide me now?'
As though led by the divine hand, Dr. Gupta went to Sneha to confabulate with her. Apologizing for his intrusion into her private terrain, the good doctor proceeded to psychoanalyze how her adulterous ways led to her son's misogamist mindset. Ashamed as such for having become the talk of the town, she was truly devastated by the doctor's disclosure. Affected as he was by her predicament, yet the doctor in dilemma rooted for her testimony. He averred that it was bound to buttress her son's defense in medicolegal terms and thus earn him a lenient sentence. Sadly, he concluded, the choice boiled down to owning up her shame in camera or seeing her son in the death row.
