[ominous music]
[engine rumbles]
[engine turns off]
[wife] The next day, in the morning, early morning, at five…
[husband] 4:30 in the morning.
-[wife] Was it 4:30? -[husband] Yes.
[wife] It was about 4:30, 4:45 in the morning,
um, when we heard somebody knock on the door.
So I asked my husband, "Just check who's at the door."
My husband also wondered, "Who would come at this hour?"
For about 10 to 15 minutes, we did not open the door.
Then we heard a voice saying, "It's me, Akku. I'm outside.
Open the door! Come on, open the door!"
Then my husband opened the door.
When Akku saw my husband, he told him, "I need to… I need to talk to your wife."
My husband said, "Okay, tell me."
He said, "Not you, her."
My husband said, "That's not possible. You need to speak to her in my presence."
And then, Akku told him, "Not in front of you."
Then Akku dragged him out.
Back then, the toilets were outside the homes.
Akku pushed him inside the toilet and locked him from outside.
My husband kept banging the door.
And then, Akku threatened me with huge deadly weapons.
He said, "Come with me!" To which I flatly refused.
But he forcefully dragged me…
[sobbing] He dragged me out forcefully.
He just wouldn't listen.
[sobbing]
It was 5:00 in the morning.
Everyone was watching this from their houses.
But nobody came to my rescue.
He was dragging me in front of everyone. But no one dared to stop him even once.
Everyone just continued to watch this from their houses.
He dragged me to a really faraway place.
And then, he did…
He did horrible…
extremely horrible things to me.
I can't even speak about all the terrible things he did.
[somber music]
[wife] After doing all those things, he told me, "I'm done with you!
Now I want you to come with me.
I promise I'll marry you right away."
I told him, "I will never go with a… dis… disgusting man like you.
It's impossible. My husband is a gem of a man.
We will somehow manage our lives together."
[animal snorting]
After that, I went to my landlady's friend's house
and narrated the whole incident to her.
She told me, "Don't worry, beata.
Take a bath. It will wash away everything."
[water splashes]
Then, I came home.
I took a shower and I finally got to meet my husband.
I told him everything.
And he said, "This wasn't your choice.
It was forced upon you. You are still the same for me.
We will live together. I won't marry anyone else.
You have not done anything wrong.
Why would I leave you for no fault of yours?"
[husband] I think our incident was the first one to happen.
-[wife] So all this happened-- Mm-hmm. -[husband] Isn't it?
Had anything like this happened in the past in our locality?
[wife] Mine was the first case in our area.
-The tyrannies started with me. -[husband] So this was the beginning.
The beginning.
[theme music]
Why are those women in jail?
Why were they arrested? Are those women guilty?
They must get justice.
We demand the release of those five women.
[reporter 1] Meanwhile, the city police have made special bandobast
here in the Nyay Mandir premises
for the five women to be brought to court shortly.
[reporter 2] Now the immediate worry
is to secure the release of the five women who've been arrested.
Today, more than 400 women are claiming that they are guilty
of having committed this gruesome crime.
They have accepted it and are ready to surrender.
[serious music]
People started gathering from ten in the morning.
And by that time, it was about 11:00, 11:30 or so.
Five to 10,000 people had gathered there.
The whole of Akashwani Chowk area which is near the court,
a whole lot of people had gathered there to protest.
The entire media was all out in force
and thousands of people had gathered outside the court.
[crowd clamoring]
-[woman 1] Release them! -[woman 2] We all are one!
-[women] We all are one! -[woman 1] United we stand!
-[women] United we stand! -We demand the…
The court came to a complete halt when even the lawyers joined the protest
and decided to go to the District Judge.
Our court proceedings started at 11:30 in the morning,
and by the time the order was passed, it was 4:00 p.m.
At that moment, we had mixed feelings.
We were anxious and scared.
Also felt like crying at times.
But finally, we were granted bail and released.
CENTRAL PRISON, NAGPUR
[Vilas] You know just how people gather on the streets
to see a movie star, to see them in person?
Similarly, a huge crowd had gathered to see these women.
[indistinct chatter]
[camera shutters clicking]
A number of social organizations
were also present there to felicitate them.
We couldn't stop laughing
as people had brought a whole lot of sweets.
[snickers]
They were feeding us with so much love, you know.
[crowd clamoring]
[camera shutters clicking]
[engine rumbles]
This is a historic day for women, their unity,
their struggle, and their freedom.
It's an important day to celebrate.
-[whistling] -[festive band plays]
[cheering]
We women did a noble deed by slaying that demon.
[crowd cheering, chanting]
KASTURBA NAGAR REJOICES RELEASE OF ACCUSED WOMEN
ALL FIVE WOMEN RELEASED ON BAIL
The five women accused in Akku Yadav's murder case have been released.
But the government and police must think very seriously
about how to prevent a recurrence of such heinous crimes.
[dramatic music]
[Gopinath] Even after such a grave incident,
neither the Chief Minister nor the Home Minister
has visited this place
to understand the pain and agony of these people.
All the mothers are weeping,
and sisters are crying to protect their honor.
[reporter 1] The party, Janata Party, might deny politicizing this incident.
But with the upcoming elections,
many political parties will try to make this an electoral issue.
[reporter 2] Akku Yadav, a higher caste man,
who killed, raped, and robbed in this community of Dalits
those at the bottom of the caste ladder.
And from the very next day itself,
this incident had already become a political agenda.
They claimed that "Our women who were…
victims of this, uh, upper caste criminal
have now decided his fate."
No, we didn't see any casteism in him.
Not at all!
He did not have the brains for it and not even as much time for it.
Is there a non-Dalit woman this man has ever raped?
In all the 40 cases we know that have happened,
has he… has he ever laid his hands on a non-Dalit woman?
All his… all his victims were.
All the survivors of his rapes were Dalit women.
He murdered Dalit women.
He oppressed and tortured everybody.
He did not even care whether the woman he raped
was a Dalit, or an OBC, or a Yadav. It didn't matter.
A criminal has no caste, right? Does a rapist have any caste?
There were no Brahmins or upper-caste people there.
It was a community of very poor people.
So his targets were slum dwellers and all.
So he always harassed all these people,
very poor people, slum dwellers, squatters,
they were like his constant targets all the time.
[ominous music]
[shatters]
He had this habit of throwing stones at women
and would then turn his head the other way.
This was a very typical old habit of his.
If he ever saw a woman strolling around,
now, it is very natural to look around when you're walking
here and there, right?
It's a human habit, isn't it?
He would ask the woman, "What are you looking at?"
He wanted that we all should walk around with our heads down and not look around
like a herd of cattle.
I would alert the girls, "Run! Run! He's come! See? Hide!"
"Stay here! Hide there! Hide there! Get in there! Go, go!"
This is what I would say to my daughters and daughter-in-law.
I would ask them to hide in some by-lane or at someone's house.
"Go hide! He's coming from that way! Hurry up!"
I was really scared he would touch my daughters or my daughter-in-law.
I was really scared.
[ominous music]
[indistinct chatter]
[nervous breathing]
[Khadse woman] "No school for you!
I'm here for you, right? Don't go to school."
-He would say such things. -Her kid did not go to school.
Not hers, not hers. None of the children went to school.
-Our daughters stopped going to school. -They didn't go to school.
They did not go to school at all.
Out of fear, what if he stopped them when they were on their way to school?
What if he stopped them and created some kind of trouble?
My mother married me off
when I was just 16 all because of that man.
I didn't know the reason back then.
But this problem affected both my sister and I.
The scenario was that my elder sister married off her own will at a young age.
So then, was I left with any choice?
Which is why my mother got me married at a young age.
-[leaves rustling] -[water flowing]
[insects chirping]
[fire crackles]
[daunting music]
[plastic rustles]
[woman] We had lived there for some time, maybe a year or two.
I was about 13 to 14 years old.
Food was scarce at the time.
We'd often go hungry without food for about three days.
We were so engrossed in playing
that we did not even realize that we were starving
and when we were thirsty, we used to simply drink some water.
We would buy food, fried chips,
or something with five paise, whatever little money.
We'd manage somehow.
[children yelling, playing]
-[bottle clinks] -[man yelling angrily]
My parents used to fight a lot.
And then my mother would get beaten.
My father was short-tempered.
He did not like being with us at home at all.
He was violent.
Especially towards me.
He was an addict, you know.
He provided less and hit us more.
[rain pattering]
Later on, we found out that some outsiders
were harassing the people in our area.
Somebody by the name of Akku Yadav.
He would forcibly enter people's houses.
Just barge into them.
But he had not come to our houses yet.
We were extremely frightened when we got to know about all his visits.
So I did not step out of the house.
It was the rainy season.
And the entire road was waterlogged.
We had a slab outside the door.
These men stepped on the slab in order to avoid the muck.
His arm hit the door accidentally.
So then my father got angry and yelled, "Who is that bloody motherfucker?"
Asking who was at our door at this hour.
They pushed their way in and they barged right into our house.
-[objects clattering] -[rowdy noise]
There were about five to six men carrying deadly weapons.
They all were extremely drunk.
And it was late at night.
Then he grabbed my hand.
My mother tried to stop him.
She told him, "Please let go of my daughter."
Seeing this, my father rushed to help.
So then my father started beating Akku saying,
"Let go of my daughter."
He was holding me with one hand.
He started hitting my father. First, with one hand, and then with both.
So I slipped from his grasp.
[rain pattering intensifies]
[water splashing]
[squeaks]
[door clonks close]
After I escaped, I hid for about an hour or so.
And was so afraid to come out.
[cloth rustles]
I came out after about two hours.
[indistinct chatter]
I saw that people had gathered there.
My mother started examining my body.
She wanted to know what exactly had happened to me.
She asked me questions, "Tell me, what happened?
What did they do to you?"
My father could not ask such things, so my mother asked me.
I told my mother that I was not too far and I was hiding nearby.
But people were convinced
that he had abducted me and done something to me.
[muffled chatter]
As a family, we put a lid on the matter.
But who can put a lid on people's mouths?
Only the person who has gone through all this
knows the reality of things, right?
If I had been abducted that day, then I wouldn't have survived.
They had some weapons with them, right?
If even one of them had attacked, the others would've pounced instantly.
But people still talk about it.
I have told them explicitly that nothing happened.
I can still stand tall among them.
Those who have done something wrong will hang their heads in shame.
Even today, when people meet me or talk to me,
I'm not scared, I do not hide my face.
No one will admit what has happened with them.
No one will ever confess anything.
Because everyone has self-respect and honor, right? It's truly priceless.
Today, the children of these women have grown up.
What if they find out, hmm, about all these horrible things?
It's always the woman who has to carry the scorn and shame, right?
That's why they'll never speak about it.
Even today, in our society, it is very difficult for a woman
to come forward and say, "I have been raped", even today.
The society will look down upon her and humiliate her for no fault of hers.
They would say that, "That's the girl who got raped!"
Even though she's the one who's attacked
and may have not done anything to create this social attack on herself,
she's… she has to bear the burden of becoming impure,
that she has… she has somehow violated the norm expected of her,
that she should keep herself sexually pure.
[wife] Even my mother abandoned me.
She said, "You have shamed us!
You've ruined our family's name!
We don't want you in this house."
She threw me out of the house on the same day.
My own parents pushed me away.
[door opens]
[footsteps]
[Chandra] The oppressor should be condemned.
He is the one who should be ridiculed.
The woman is not at fault.
Did she invite trouble?
Some people tend to blame the woman for such heinous crimes.
They say that she's responsible for tempting the man, provoking the man.
-It's always… -It's always the woman's fault.
-Yes. -A woman's fault.
And actually, the women constantly blame each other for it.
Yes.
So the mindset needs to change.
This change is important.
Uh, it is often noticed, uh, that women in slum areas
find some means to earn their income and supplement their income as well.
I don't think such acts can be termed as rape.
I would rather say that, uh…
the gangsters and local criminals of such areas
uh, simply take the services that these women offer.
He never harassed any women, never.
He never teased and abused any woman.
All these are false accusations.
This was fabricated out of nothing.
If he had actually wronged so many women,
if he had raped so many women,
then a few, a handful of women may remain silent.
But one fine day, someone would complain, right?
But here, no one had registered a case.
All this isn't true.
You see, in Akku's case,
I cannot recollect any news
while he was alive
at least none of which that I had published
that Akku was harassing the women of Kasturba Nagar.
And yet from 1999 until 2004,
Akku somehow became such a big serial rapist,
such a notorious one that the women had to come and kill him in court.
This could be a very interesting story for a web series.
[screams in agony]
[reporter] Yes, the situation in the courtroom
resembled the climax of this old film to the T.
To begin with, the women who barged into the courtroom
shut the door from inside.
And then, started throwing chili powder into Akku's eyes.
[horrified scream]
So the theory that the media was putting and pushing onto the viewers
that women sought justice, uh, by killing a serial rapist
is not true at all as this murder was not committed
because of multiple rapes, but was the result of a gang war.
[mysterious music]
Some of the accused in this case were his old associates.
You can say that they were his gang members
and that they were involved in this.
Their involvement in the murder shows us
that, uh, this was an internal gang dispute,
a rivalry, and they joined hands
with the people from the locality to commit this heinous crime.
[reporter] The police is currently in Kasturba Nagar to investigate
and take statements of the boys.
They have arrested five boys since yesterday.
[man] We aren't allowed to step out of this area.
Like the moment they see me or him, we'll get arrested right away.
You know, every boy
between, you know, the age of 20 and 30 years
was extremely petrified.
They had also stopped going to work.
After that, we were always in fear.
You know, what is going to happen and what are we going to do.
Now, what next?
And then the police handpicked some boys.
Basically, it was their intention to arrest a certain number of boys
and file a case of gang war against them.
That was their plan.
[discordant music]
DEMANDS FOR JUDICIAL PROBE
INTO AKKU'S MURDER
[typewriter clacking]
SEARCH BEGINS FOR THE ACCUSED IN AKKU MURDER CASE
[serious music]
[Manish] They arrested me. The CID team arrested me.
But I did not disclose any names or what anyone did to me.
I only testified against the women who had given my name to the ACP.
So that was the case. So this is what happened with me.
This is what happened.
The police tried their best to break our unity
and to a great extent, they even succeeded in doing so.
They should have investigated,
found out the guilty person who was at fault, and then arrested them.
They were arresting people randomly.
The culprits were set free and the innocent were arrested.
The next theory that they came up with
was that the Naxal Group is usually involved in such acts.
So a Naxalite must be the mastermind.
Who could that Naxalite brain be?
Advocate Vilas Bhande's senior.
Vilas Bhande's senior's name is Gadling.
He has TADA cases involving Naxalites.
So they somehow cooked up this complicated story
and put it in the charge sheet where it actually read
that in order to get bail for the Naxalites
and get them out of jail, this murder was planned and executed,
so that the judiciary is pressurized.
That's it. So who did it? I did it.
REAL CULPRIT IS VILAS BHANDE MRS. YADAV
BHANDE MAY GET ARRESTED ANYTIME
ARRESTED ACCUSED GRANTED PCR TILL FIRST
[engine rumbles]
ANOTHER ACCUSED ARRESTED
[footsteps]
[woman] The police are arresting boys and taking them in for no reason at all.
They're just arresting them randomly.
-There were these people in the bus. -Where were they?
-Where was the CID? -Where was the CID?
Where was the Commissioner, the ACP, the DCP?
Why didn't they investigate before?
Yes, we have slayed a demon. What did these boys do? Tell me.
Just to safeguard their jobs, the police are twisting the story
like this and like that.
They all are lying.
[Chandra] The State CID team was present when Yashasvi Yadav
and the other police officers demanded.
They said, "Give us ten boys
and we will never step into the locality again."
-[reporter] The police said this to you? -Yes, of course, they did!
-Why don't you ask them? -Yes, they did.
-[reporter] Ten boys? -Of course.
-They said, "Give us ten boys." -Yes, then we'll see.
Release the boys! Release the boys!
[Chandra] This is definitely not a gang war.
We demand that the State CID should stop this
and release all the innocent boys who have been arrested.
If you want to arrest someone in Akku's murder case,
then please arrest us, the women, who killed a goon
to protect and honor their safety.
It was, to us, our cause for social justice, we did a good thing.
As far as I can remember, I think it took us about a month.
The Fact Finding Report came out in September 2004.
And, uh, what was done on a war footing to publish the report as soon as possible.
[Chandra] Only then could all the abuses and atrocities of the police be stopped.
We interviewed a lot of people in the entire locality.
[indistinct chatter]
In this way, slowly and steadily,
a number of different women, an old lady, some college-going girls,
all of them came forward
and told us that they had been physically abused.
[machine whirring]
Earlier, uh, there was no theory of a series of rapes.
But later on, a theory got developed that Akku Yadav
had raped a number of women, four rapes, ten rapes in that locality.
As per some newspapers, the Fact Finding Committee claimed
that he had raped more than 100 women.
I don't think there is any truth in it.
And this was rather over the top.
How can one single man commit so many rapes?
He used to do it every other day very often.
If he got to sleep with a woman,
if he got a chance to have sex with the woman he chose,
then why would he bother to get married?
It was like an addiction for him,
something that he really wanted all the time.
Akku was a horny pervert.
He was known as a hymen-thief.
He was constantly searching for sex everywhere.
He invited me also once, saying,
"Bro, it's on tonight. Want to join me?"
I told him, "No, no, no."
That is how he was when it came to women, every woman.
I've… I've seen it.
You know, they say, "A tiger gets addicted once it tastes blood,
he gets crazy."
It was the exact same thing with Akku.
Lust and sex drove him crazy.
He did not bother if the woman
was old, young, or even just a little child.
All these things never made any difference to him. Nothing at all.
If he wanted sex, he wanted it anyhow.
And age was not a criterion at all.
[ominous music]
Five to six people came.
They were Akku's men.
And they kept knocking at the door.
They kept knocking. They screamed, "Open the door!"
So her mother asked, "Who is it? Tell me, who is there?"
They replied, "We are from the police."
Thinking it was the police, the mother opened the door.
[objects shattering]
[Sita] Once the door opened, Akku dragged the girl out,
pulling her by her hair.
He locked her mother in the house.
[Shobha] He closed the door and locked her mother inside.
[Sita] The mother kept screaming for help.
"Someone, please help! Please stop him! Please help!"
[object scratches]
[gravel rustles]
[object skidding]
[suspenseful music]
He ripped all her clothes off and raped the poor girl so brutally.
She was literally begging him
to let her go saying, "You're like my brother!
Please don't do this to me! Let me go! Somebody, please save me! Please save me!"
She was so desperate.
"Oh, brother, help me! Please, somebody, help me!"
"Help me, somebody! Please save me!" She was pleading!
But at that time, not a single son of a bitch came to help her. Poor thing.
[sniffles]
People continued to stand on
and kept watching the show for fun from the windows.
There were so many houses in the locality!
She was surrounded by people.
If everyone came out to help, would he have dared?
He couldn't have even thought of raping this poor innocent woman.
-Do you know she was pregnant? -Yes.
She was seven months pregnant.
She had come home for delivery.
That horrible man raped her right in the middle of the main street.
[somber music]
[creature squealing]
[vehicle honks]
She knocked on my door as well, but I could not help her at all.
Because he had his gang with him.
If I would have interfered or tried to help,
they would have killed me as well.
Some of the boys were also involved.
The local boys were also involved in this gruesome crime.
This rape was disgusting.
He did a horrible thing to that poor woman.
[crow cawing]
So the next morning, at 10:30, her mother told me
that she had admitted her daughter to Mayo Hospital.
I asked her, "What happened?"
Then she told me that seven men had raped her daughter
and that poor little soul did not receive any help at all.
She asked me, "What should we do?"
I replied, "Let's lodge a complaint."
[determined music]
After reaching Indora Police Station, she tells me, "No, I can't do this!
You live far away but I'm right here in Kasturba Nagar, you know.
He could come anytime and kill all of us."
I told her, "You are also at fault if you let him go."
She told me he had threatened her saying,
"I will come tomorrow and do this again!
I'll come day after as well!
We will come at the same time.
But if you complain, we will kill you and your daughter as well."
He had threatened her with all these things.
[somber music]
He threatened the women in the locality by saying,
"If anybody files a complaint, I will kill your entire family. Everyone.
I will kill everyone. Chop you all up!"
Those were his words.
We went to the police. It's not like we didn't try.
But they… They would keep passing the buck to each other.
"You do it. No, no, you do it."
This way. Finally, even after all this drama
and passing and passing, no one would come to help us at all.
[wife] We waited at the police station for a long time,
but they didn't register our complaint.
On the other hand, they blamed me instead.
[husband] Their question to me was…
"Your wife was having an affair with him, right?"
It took me almost six months to come to terms with this incident.
I could not think any further.
Yes, it was my fault.
That I could not protect her.
There were reasons behind all this.
I kept thinking day and night all the time
that how do I take revenge.
Uh…
I don't really know if I should share this with you or not, but…
I made several attempts.
Six, to be precise.
But I failed.
[husband] He never came alone.
Always had some men with him.
I would sometime peep from doors and at times from windows
wondering if he's anywhere around.
I could not get any sleep, was always on full alert.
[man 1] At that time, I would often feel, "Can't I fight this injustice myself?"
But for the safety of my home and that of my family,
I had to keep my mouth shut.
[man 2] You see, we men from the slums live hand to mouth.
Our financial situation is very bad.
You see, we have young daughters.
If we were to take him on, he might kidnap our daughters.
There wasn't even a single person who could stand up and confront him.
[man 3] We had no support from the area as well as from the police.
What could we do?
They had weapons.
And what did we have?
Sticks?
[man 4] Our women and daughters were being violated.
And unfortunately, we couldn't do anything at all.
We felt completely worthless and helpless in this situation.
[man 5] We started drinking.
How else could we cope with this mental trauma?
We lost the desire to touch our wives.
Only the seared heart knows its pain.
But then, what could they even do?
They were extremely infuriated.
But they were also helpless.
They were tired of what was happening.
They kept thinking.
They were scared of him. Oppressed, suppressed, helpless.
It finally became unbearable.
So then, we sisters together decided!
We both decided that it was time to finish him off!
We had to end the torture.
I told her, "You, don't worry. I'll go to jail for you!
I'll go to jail. But first, we finish him off.
Because he would kill us anyway.
So why not kill him first?
Have courage!"
So we waited and waited. And he came after three days.
[cautious music]
[swishes]
He sat on the bed and placed his knife right there next to him.
He asked, "What have you cooked today?"
I told him, "I made chutney." He said, "Give me some food."
I got him some food.
I told him to sit there comfortably and eat his food.
We had already mixed chili powder in water. We were ready. Oh, yes.
We thought we would throw it in his eyes and blind him
and then stab, stab, stab him to death.
And then drag his body onto the railway tracks
and let it be cut into pieces.
[food boiling]
[food squishing]
[eerie music]
[boiling continues]
[chiming music]
[tense music]
[music intensifies]
[railroad rumbles, squeaks]
So this was our plan but it did not work out.
Somehow, he sensed it!
Just by sitting there on the bed,
he somehow sensed that we were waiting for him,
waiting to hurt him in some way.
[uneasy music]
[Sita] He left his knife on the bed and ran away immediately.
[door opens]
I tried to call him back saying, "Come, have a seat."
But he never stepped into my house after that incident!
Now is it possible for us to go follow him outside?
He could have alerted his gang with just a whistle.
And so, after we had failed, we knew he would come back to attack us.
So we promptly emptied the house and went away from the area.
We went hiding through the by-lanes, looking over our shoulders.
Looking here and there, here and there, here and there,
as we look for a safe place.
Okay, we were petrified
that he would show up and he kill us immediately.
Slowly and steadily, we sneaked along the gutter.
Our children were also there with us.
We walked in darkness holding each other's hands.
[water sloshing]
[Pushpa] We left behind our belongings.
Only to save our lives.
[insects chirping]
Our home may seem like a very small shanty to you.
But we have worked very hard to make it a mud house,
and over a period of time, we made it a brick house,
and then turned it into a stone house.
Meaning it was made with our blood and sweat, right?
Just imagine how heartbreaking it was to leave everything behind.
[wind blows]
[engine revs]
He's terrorized us for two years.
It was so bad that people had to leave their homes and go far away.
Almost all the houses were empty.
The interior was all gone because of him, all thanks to his terror.
[reporter 1] The areas of Jaripatka and Pachpaoli in Nagpur
were tortured with Akku's terror,
which is why people fled from these areas out of fear.
[reporter 2] This is Usha Narayane's house.
Usha was the last person
to be threatened by Akku before the murder.
[Usha] My name is Usha Madhukar Narayane.
At that point of time, I was fully focused on completing my studies at the earliest.
And also, we weren't financially that well off at home.
It was a tough situation.
So I wanted to improve my family's financial condition.
Good education would improve things for us.
Usha is my sister-in-law. Usha Narayane.
She is my wife's younger sister
and she had completed her hotel management course.
So during her hotel management course,
she used to dress up in a slightly modern and stylish way.
So that was the reason why Akku made Usha his object of lust.
[Usha] Initially, I carried my clothes in the bag,
especially because of Akku.
But if it got late and I did not get the time to change,
then I had to return home in the same uniform.
He would always pass comments like,
"See to it that your legs are covered. Dress up properly.
Don't do this. Don't wear shorts." And I actually did not.
Because he would always stare at me.
[anxious music]
[Usha] Then once, my manager was on leave
which is why he requested a colleague from my department to drop me home.
Back then, there wasn't a proper road or anything,
so we had to walk some distance to our home.
[rowdy men in distance]
[Usha] As soon as we, uh, reached the water tank,
we saw that his gang was seated over there.
That is when Akku commented,
"You sick woman, I'm pretty sure
that you must be getting fucked real hard from both sides.
And of course, you must be extremely tired after providing a really good service."
[rowdy men continues]
Those words felt so ugly like massive blows.
And that too, he was saying this in front of a stranger.
So what would my colleague think of me?
[bird chirrups, flaps]
I was so shaken up by those words
that all my education, work, and efforts felt worthless.
I would be in college from morning until six in the evening.
And then go to work from 7:00 in the evening to 11:30 in the night.
After working so hard,
how can a man say something so horrible to me?
How is someone supposed to react to that?
Should I just ignore it and walk away from there?
Or should I respond to him or say something concrete?
[pensive music]
[Usha] So much has happened.
So much has happened that, you know,
it's impossible to even share those things in detail.
It's unbelievable how people tolerated this terror for so many years.
[metal clinks]
[rain pattering]
[thunder rumbles]
[Usha] This incident took place in the last week of July.
Everyone was sleeping in the night.
Suddenly, I heard some sounds as if someone was walking.
So I thought that perhaps it is some animal.
So I went back to sleep, thinking that it is nothing.
[footsteps]
But with time, the sound increased.
So my house wall had loose bricks.
[skids]
[Usha] I just pulled a brick out, and I saw that…
there were at least 10 to 12 people
who were coming in and going out from the opposite house.
[indistinct chatter]
I couldn't sleep the entire night, wondering what was happening outside.
That was the only thing going through my mind all the time.
As soon as they left, my neighbor came running to me
and asked what can she do.
I told her to go and file a complaint right away.
[serious music]
[Usha] We went to the police station
and told them everything that had happened.
But they refused to register our complaint.
They said, "Filing a complaint is not a joke.
It is not a game for children. Do you have any proof with you?"
The police officer over there from the Crime Branch
told Akku about us.
That a young girl and a lady from your locality had come here.
He told him the lady's name and that the other girl was Usha.
Everything that I went through after that was so horrible and so terrifying.
I don't think even villains in a film
have ever done something so nasty and scary
in comparison to what he put me through in real life.
-[knocks on door] -[angry yelling]
[Usha] He gathered his entire gang
and covered the whole area around us from all four sides.
Akku was exploding with anger and rage.
He announced,
"Let me see who has the balls to save this Usha today. Come out."
And they also brought acid with them.
He shouted, "We will throw the acid on your face.
You are very proud of your good looks, right?
Flaunt your beauty after this."
-[knocks on door] -[buttons clicking]
He had already disconnected our landline connection.
I had a basic mobile phone with me.
I called my brother-in-law.
He told us that their house was also surrounded by so many goons
that it was impossible for them to step out.
-[loud knocking] -[rowdy shouting continues]
[Usha] That day, Akku said
such horrible things about my family and I.
The things he said are indescribable.
He swore at my family.
He announced that he would do terrible things to me.
That he would parade me naked.
That he would make sure I am gang-raped
and then he's going to chop me into pieces.
And how would he do that?
Just the way Asha Bhagat was murdered and chopped up into pieces.
Breasts mutilated and thrown, vagina hacked.
He wanted to do all these horrible and gruesome things
and a lot worse than all this to me.
[troubling music]
And at that moment, I realized
that I was in serious trouble and my life was in danger.
And not just I.
My sister-in-law and mother who were also with me were in danger too.
So I asked my family to just leave the room.
They told me, "No way.
That's impossible. We will all die together."
My brother said that, "How can we let you die alone?"
I pleaded with my brother, "No, please take everyone away.
Don't worry about me.
I cannot put all of you through this.
I will figure it out."
They said that, "We have been together for so long,
then how can we allow this bastard to just rape you like this?"
But we really had no other option left with us.
So after all the pleading, my brother very reluctantly
took everyone to the other room for safety.
[anxious breathing]
Everyone in the area was listening to what was happening.
But not a single person dared
to step out and snatch the bottle of acid or confront them.
[nervous music]
[Usha] I could not understand what to do and what not to do.
[thumps]
[anxious breathing]
And I just don't know how this thought came to my mind.
I somehow managed to unplug the gas cylinder,
and dragged it all the way to the main door of the house.
[skidding, clonking]
And then I gathered courage and screamed,
"I have turned on the gas, and if you barge into my house,
then I'm warning you that I will just strike a match!
My house may burn down to ashes, but I will take all of you along with me."
[tense music]
I was going to die anyway.
So why should I spare them?
[air hisses]
[tense music]
[music intensifies]
[deep inhale]
[match ignites]