13th August, 2004.
It must have been around… quarter to three
or between 2:30 and 3:00 in the afternoon,
when, um, inside the court premises,
Akku was murdered.
The court was shut on 14th August due to a holiday.
Otherwise, this would have happened on the 14th.
And if the 15th of August wasn't observed as a national holiday,
it would have happened on the 15th.
The complete Ambedkarite Movement of Vidarbha…
had been hijacked by…
the so-called, so-called Urban Naxalites.
It was an arranged, planned…
murder.
Which had something very fishy,
which is still unexplored.
[theme music]
[rowdy yelling]
[breathes shakily]
Akku thought he would barge into Usha Narayane's house
and would either rape her or brutally murder her.
He wanted to do this to Usha Narayane.
She dragged the cylinder to the main door and said,
"Come on, Akku!"
[air hisses]
[Usha] 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!"
And this is when it all started.
Till then, it had just been simmering.
And then, it exploded.
[exhilarated breathing]
It was around midnight.
We all were inside our houses.
And then she screamed loudly.
"Run! Akku has come!"
Which is when everyone realized that if we don't help her now
and if we don't step out of our houses now,
then in the generations to come,
our wives, our sisters, our mothers are never going to be safe.
And that is when they finally opened their doors.
[tense music]
Since so many doors opened all at once, Akku got scared.
And out of fear, he finally ran away.
[yells]
[crowd yelling]
"Akku is running away! Akku is running away!"
Men, women, kids, all people,
everyone started chasing him with sticks and stones.
[woman yells]
[people clamoring]
-He crossed the lane. -He went from her lane.
-He crossed the lane, reached the sewer. -Crossed it.
-And then he jumped into it. -Jumped into it.
Knee-deep in sewage water, in dirty water,
then we went to Martin Nagar area to look for him.
We looked for him at the railway station and even at the mental hospital.
We went all the way to Mankapur to look for him.
We split up. Some here and some there.
[water splashing]
[tense music]
The next morning, I woke up and went around on my Lunar.
And I told everyone that,
"Rise up now! If not now, then never."
[engine roars]
[Vilas] So what I did was then I went around
to his hangout spots in Kasturba Nagar.
There was a general store, like a grocery store
from where he would buy his cigarettes.
So I warned that shopkeeper.
Tell that dickhead he can mess with anyone.
Anyone he wants to, but he better stay away from me.
Because I've been there and done it all.
I went to each and every lane and at the top of my lungs, I screamed,
that, "If you don't step out today, you won't be able to step out ever again."
[tense music]
She organized a meeting and called everyone.
I went and informed all the boys about this meeting.
I went from door to door and called everyone.
I told them, "If you don't come out today, you will have to suffer your entire life."
[gate squeaks]
-[thunder rumbles] -[goats bleat]
We have to finish him off.
So are we together in this?
We replied, "Yes, of course."
But what if something goes wrong, then what? Will you be with us?
We all agreed to stand united till the end.
And so, this way, we got courage from each other.
We said, "Akku may be powerful, but we have to take some action.
And we refuse to get tortured anymore.
Let us unite and fight.
And then, everything started from that day.
[dramatic music]
Believe it or not, from 2nd August, for the next three days and two nights,
we were on a lookout for him, with flick-knives in our hands.
We had filled buckets with big stones and kept them handy.
-And chili water and sticks. -This bi--
-Stones. -Yes, big stones.
The minute we saw anyone running, we thought that Akku was back!
[giggles]
It was really funny.
We were in constant fear because of him.
It was unimaginable.
We couldn't eat, even a morsel of food, wondering if he would come and kill us.
What had happened was that
those who had left their houses fearing him,
they started coming back to help us to look for him.
-"You all have left this place." -"Are you not from this area?"
"Won't you all be back here? Why are you not coming back?"
They all kept asking us this.
We sensed a wave of excitement and joined them.
[tense music continues]
[glass clinks]
[Vilas] Slowly and steadily, the mob became so huge, very huge.
That there were about 50 to 60 people with me.
I sort of became their leader, you know, a sort of an anchor.
That particular August, nobody went to work.
We pooled in whatever small amount of money that we all had
just to feed ourselves.
We set up a community kitchen kind of a structure.
Now the rest of the people also started helping them.
You know, like small shopkeepers and many such people? All of them?
They had devised their own information network.
Like a system to relay all the information and the information received was correct.
They knocked on my door, asking, "Have you hid an Akku at your place?"
I told them, "Come and check inside."
Here and there, they were checking everyone's house in the area.
Not just my house.
Since I didn't join them, they barged into my house as well.
They thought since Akku and I were friends, I may be supporting him.
But that wasn't true at all.
Whenever he was accompanied by his old allies,
he would unbutton his shirt a little.
I have a mic on me, so I cannot show it.
They would just lift up their shirts like this to make a hood.
[Vilas] Even they had the desire to kill him.
They were fuming with rage.
But they did not want to show their hatred towards him or reveal their identity
until he was dead.
So what we used to do is that we would search for him in the night.
And in the day, we would request the police to do it.
[phone ringing]
Our only intention was that he should get the harshest punishment ever.
But they did not help us.
They thought it was all fiction,
and that I was bluffing and just messing around.
Jadhav told me, "Bhagangbai please come here."
"Are you the ward president?"
I replied, "Yes, sir."
He was a Sub-Inspector then.
He gathered all of us and said, "Come here. You come here. Even you."
We went. What did he say? "All of you catch him.
All of you catch him and beat him up real bad.
Break his hands and legs, and we will handle the rest.
But just don't tell anyone I told you to do all this."
The police did not do anything for us.
When we asked them to arrest him, they told us,
"Why don't you catch him for us?"
But why should we do that?
Tell me. Why have you become a police officer?
That is when Chandra…
She came and told all of us, she was the one who suggested to us,
"How can the police ignore us?"
She used to represent the union as its leader.
"How can the police do such a thing?"
"We will organize a press conference."
[tense music]
[Vilas] It was the first time we were addressing the media.
And, uh, we did not know how to speak.
Very innocently, we told them everything truthfully.
[Usha] Then they started asking us questions.
"Come on, tell us. Who was raped?"
"Why didn't anyone lodge a complaint?"
"Who did he murder?"
"How was he acquitted after the murder?"
"Why are the witnesses not here?"
They turned it on us, claiming that you, that means we,
were holding a press conference for publicity.
They felt it was all for publicity. They did not believe us.
[Vilas] "How can such a notorious goon not be arrested by the police?"
And one of the reporters started laughing while speaking to us.
When Usha Narayane saw this, she was fuming.
She challenged them to stay in our area for just one night.
She said, "We have lived there all our lives.
I challenge you to stay there for just one single night."
We told the reporters,
"If a rapist continues to walk freely in society and tortures women,
and women continue to get abused,
then we will mobilize the women of that area
and take the law in our hands.
We issued an open challenge.
[newspaper rustles]
[Vilas] The next day, when we scanned the newspapers
to check what had been printed,
and when we realized that nothing had been published,
not even in a single newspaper, we got very angry and frustrated.
And lost all hope, we were disheartened.
We kept thinking, "Who will help us now?"
And then, that led us to his house on the 6th August.
We were angry.
And then we demolished his house totally next day.
[dramatic music]
[Vilas] Believe it or not, we were more than 100 people.
Everyone was armed with hammers, sickles,
-different weapons. -Everyone was angry.
We all had something or the other.
And we brought his house down.
It was an outburst of our anger.
We were abusing and cussing him all the way.
[people clamoring]
[Vilas] We were like Lord Rama's monkey brigade.
We broke open his roof. We destroyed things in his house.
We brought down his walls by throwing bricks and stones.
Don't they say…
Ravana's kingdom was made of gold
but he had such a massive ego
When Hanuman set his kingdom on fire, his pride was reduced to ashes.
Did it manage to survive?
[vehicles rumbling, honking]
Then on 7th August, Akku surrendered.
This was his planned strategy with the police. It was his tactic.
[Vilas] And we knew the man who had arrested him.
The two of them were friends.
I was in the lockup when Akku was brought in.
From the Crime Office, we met at around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m.
[Ram] We were in the lockup the entire night.
His plan was to stay in jail until everything outside calmed down.
He told me about the feud and about the unrest.
His nephew, Dangrya, and he had a plan.
[cards clacks]
Dangrya was planning to kill one of their enemies and get arrested.
And in turn, Akku would step out and kill the other guys as well.
Their rivals would be killed, and later, they too would be free.
[cigarette crackles]
We knew it well…
that he would stay in jail for a few days.
Once things calm down, he would come out and make our lives hell.
The thought that he would get bail
kept all of us alert and awake all the time.
We literally lost our sleep.
All of us, women, men,
we all would sit on rooftops and discuss things.
We would sit in small groups, here, there.
We would hold meetings just like this
and discuss what's going to happen next with all of us.
Some would say, "If we spot him, we'll attack him with chili powder."
And then some would say, "But I'm really scared to do something like that."
At that point of time, we had no positive thoughts in our mind.
Only negative thoughts of violence. Only violence.
This was due to our helplessness.
[fire crackles]
[Vilas] Our discussion would circle around the void
with uncertainties staring at us.
Round the clock, the only thing that was running through our mind was,
"How do we kill him?"
[dog barks in distance]
Then his photo got published in a newspaper
with a headline clearly stating,
"Akku in police custody remand till 13th August."
Meaning he had to be in court on the 13th.
Now we all started thinking.
That this is the last date. We have to do something anyhow.
Um, it's now or never
because if he gets bail, then there is no hope.
And if he's released, then we will surely die.
Kasturba Nagar would be finished.
So the women said that, "He can't come back."
And we were hellbent on keeping him away.
[tense music]
[Vilas] Through the night of August 12th, we kept thinking,
"How do we go about it?"
I knew the layout of the court where he were,
what is exactly where and all that.
We sat down and planned our entries and exits in the court.,
what we'll do and how.
I wasn't the only one planning all this.
A number of other people were also making their own plans.
How do we kill him? That's it.
Now the situation was that we had to fight. It was a do or die.
[tense music]
You cannot escape your karma,
whether you are my son, my grandson, you could be anyone.
You just can't.
Tell me. For how long can a goat pray for its child, huh?
When the goat goes to the slaughterhouse,
when it's time to go, no prayers can save it,
It does not work.
Now Akku had a date at the slaughterhouse.
[ominous music]
[squeaks]
[Prakash] So that day, early in the morning,
Chota Yadav or Bacha Yadav, or whatever his name was,
came to me and said, "Sir, Akku will appear in the court today.
So, sir, I have a humble request to make.
Sir, please, attend his hearing in the court."
I said, "Yes, obviously, I'll go."
He thought I'll be sending my junior.
He insisted, "Sir, make sure that you go.
Ask for a cash security bail and don't deposit the cash."
[clock ticking]
So I asked him, "Why? Why are you saying that?"
And he replied,
"They are planning something against Akku."
There's a fabrication workshop in our area.
Just opposite my in-laws' home.
So we had some scraps of metals which were made into weapons.
And all weapons were sharpened
and prepared as well in grinders, you know.
Then some people left in a Tata Sumo Samen taxis,
auto-rickshaws, some took the bus, some went walking.
But while leaving from home, everyone had just one thing on their mind.
It's going to be either him or us.
Everyone was going, so we tagged along.
My brothers discouraged me and said,
"You don't come with us. Just go home."
But I told them, "No, I will watch from a distance and then go home safely.
I just wanted to see what's going to happen there."
When I saw that their resolve was as firm as a rock,
then even I really felt the need to join them.
Akku had tortured me a lot as well, yes.
So I didn't wanna be a bystander.
I had to go no matter what. So I joined all of them.
They finished their daily chores, did not even bother to eat,
and all of them just marched off to the court as was planned.
They all made their own arrangements.
Some took their family, their children with them,
and that's how they reached the court.
[suspenseful music]
[indistinct chatter]
[clacking]
[indistinct chatter]
[victim] On that day, the whole of Kasturba Nagar came there.
Few of them were there in the family court.
A few here and a few there, scattered everywhere.
I was waiting at the family court.
We were sitting there and with us there were a lot of other people too.
So in such a scenario, uh,
we were not able to distinguish as to who belonged to which group.
We mixed with the other people.
That way, I met my senior, Surendra Gadling, advocate.
He's my senior, and a good lawyer too.
I told him what was about to happen,
and he warned me not to be a part of this nonsense
and stay away from it completely.
[dramatic music]
[indistinct chatter]
[dramatic music continues]
[victim] So my aunt, she held her sari like this,
and then she put some big stones in it.
And carried some chili powder in her blouse and gave me some as well,
saying, "In case he comes running towards you, then just throw this on him."
We had collected a whole lot of chili powder. All of us."
Someone said, "He's here!" And the women would stand up.
"No, no, no. That's not him. That's someone else."
They would sit down again.
Then we thought, "Time's up. He won't be coming."
Were they bringing him? Were they not bringing him?
Was he in Central Jail or still at the police station?
A constable came to escort us to court.
It was just the four of us.
So Akku said to me, he said that,
"Uh, listen, Ram. Let's get handcuffed together."
I said, "Sure."
So we were handcuffed together.
My right hand…
[squeaks]
…was handcuffed.
And his left hand was handcuffed.
[engine starts]
[grim music]
[door closes]
We all were tired of waiting, so we decided to have some tea.
Some women sat in line near the gate on the road for some tea.
So they all were seated and were about to sip their tea,
and that's when…
[foreboding music]
[vehicle approaching]
As soon as he entered, he stared at everyone present there.
All the women stopped having tea and put their glasses down.
Some said, "We are scared. We are leaving. We are heading home."
They were so scared. Yes.
But other women told them,
"Remember, this is not the time for us to step back.
Now kill or get killed."
[foreboding music continues]
[vehicle brakes]
[door opens]
When Akku saw people from his locality, he groomed his mustache arrogantly.
You know? Like this. Uh-huh. This way, this way.
Very teasingly.
That scared them even more.
Some hid their faces.
You know, some hid their faces in fear.
They did not want him to see them at all.
[Vilas] Even though everything was planned,
it wasn't decided who would bell the cat first.
One of the ladies, whose tenant had been raped by Akku…
was filled with pent-up rage for what he had done to her tenant.
And seeing her, Akku told her,
"You didn't learn a lesson, right? I'll bloody well see you once I'm out."
So she screamed, "You pimp!" And she threw her sandal at him.
-[thuds] -What was that?
[Vilas] Immediately after that, chaos broke out everywhere.
[crowd clamoring]
The mob began to chase him. The police couldn't handle the situation.
So they slammed the channel gate shut.
"Move aside and open the gate! Just move aside and open the gate!"
You know, just like monkeys in a cage,
they were shaking the channel gate that way.
And that intensified the situation further.
[angry yelling]
The head constable was with us.
He closed the channel gate and escorted us inside.
[tense music]
[Ram] Two ladies were standing over there.
Fearlessly, they threw chili powder on our faces.
I raised my arm to cover my face, but I got dusted.
[tense music]
[stone thuds]
[glass shattering]
[shattering continues]
[people clamoring]
[dramatic music]
Women broke open the gate and barged straight in fearlessly.
They didn't care who the lawyers were,
who the police were, who the magistrate was.
Their focus was only on Akku.
[yelling continues]
If not from this side, he was caught from the other side.
He was attacked with chili powder and whatnot and beaten real bad.
He couldn't escape.
Neither from this direction nor from that direction.
There was no way out. And he was completely trapped.
[people clamoring]
[intense music]
[Suchita] Our entire staff was watching, shocked.
One after the other, without wasting even a minute.
They beat him up continuously.
One would hit him, then the next one would start. And then yet another one.
There was a… a glass table top there in the courtroom.
A thick one.
They lifted that glass and smashed it on his head.
They went out and brought some really big stones,
and crushed his head with it.
And I saw them doing this at least six to seven times.
-[glass shattering] -[flesh pierces]
Our hands were cuffed together.
I pulled my hand away like this.
His back was here against… against my knees and I hid behind him.
Like this, while he was on me. And they attacked him here.
I wanted to save my hand.
My attention was not on him. My attention was only on my hand.
[handcuffs clink]
Every time he raised his hand to protect himself, I would pull it back.
"He was going to die, but why should I lose my hand?"
[objects clattering]
Through the wooden door that they had broken,
one could easily see the courtroom.
So I peeped in a little and saw a boy…
coming out with a knife.
The knife was a little bent.
He straightened the knife with a stone, and…
-[clacks] -…went back inside.
[yelling]
The knife that they had got jammed in his ribs.
And it hung there.
Then they would yank it out, and, uh, and then straighten it.
Because a knife bends on the bones.
They would straighten it and stab him again.
[tense music]
[Vilas] His screams were drowned, you know.
It was totally lost in the midst of the mob's noise.
[muffled clamoring]
I could just visualize everything.
I did not see who exactly it was,
but I knew who all were involved in the stabbing and killing.
[flesh rips, pierces]
Akku kept repeating, "You'll regret killing me!
-This is wrong!" -They replied, "Motherfucker!
We will see what's right and what's wrong later on.
Right now, we just wanna kill you!" They said this, and then…
-[flesh squelches] -Some ripped off his ears.
Some chopped off his body parts.
I can't even tell you what all. [snickers]
[blood squirting]
There was blood all around the place.
He was literally reduced to ground meat.
You know, even his genitals weren't spared.
And it was the women who did it.
[bangles clinking]
They all were fuming with anger.
All those whom he had raped, tortured, and wanted to kill.
These people didn't…
It was worth seeing these women at that time.
Women with their hair disheveled, with their saris tucked in,
they all were in a messy state.
Their blouses all over the place.
At that moment, they didn't care about anything.
Women had it on their mind. Men had it on theirs.
Even the boys felt it.
Everyone wanted to just finish him off.
[angry yelling]
[Ram] Those men who killed Akku Yadav,
all of them were his friends.
The men with whom he ate, drank, and hang out with,
they were the ones who killed him.
And they were from his locality.
Some people couldn't believe that he had already died.
They felt he was still alive.
-No, no, there was some life left. -Even if he had died,
they continued to beat him, thinking he is still alive.
Some of us said he was dying. Some said he's already dead.
Actually, no one knew what exactly was happening there.
This confusion caused people to run helter-skelter!
They panicked, then they dispersed, you know, all over the place, everywhere.
[somber music]
So the door of Courtroom Number 7 was totally shattered.
It was a wooden door.
And, uh, there was blood spread everywhere.
Back then, I used to wear such high heels.
And on that day, the exact spot on which I had placed my foot,
I saw Akku's blood flowing under the heels.
One thing that I remember is that, uh…
the fresh smell of flesh and blood.
You know.
His body was lying right next to the witness box,
and next to him, the accused was handcuffed with him, Ram Gedam.
So he… he…
He was trembling with fear, still handcuffed with the dead body.
When the police arrived,
I told them, "Please set me free. Even if he isn't dead, I will surely die."
"What if they come back," I asked them.
That's when they uncuffed me.
I told them I was hungry.
I hadn't eaten anything all day. They ordered a plate or two of samosas.
I was drenched in blood but my hands were clean.
[Ram] I ate those samosas, which they got for me,
drank some water, and smoked a bidi in the van.
[munches]
You know when you give an exam,
the bliss that you feel after appearing for your last exam?
Especially when it has gone so well.
Really well. Better than expected.
So the happiness that one feels then is exactly how we all felt at that moment.
[clock ticking]
[Chandra] On 13th August 2004, in the premises of Nagpur District Court,
the lynching of dreaded criminal Akku Yadav
at the hands of poor and working class women
is an example of the failure of the present system.
In its investigation, the Fact Finding Committee found that
the police had failed in carrying out its duty.
The judicial system and the executives were also involved in it.
This incident is neither a result of any caste conflict,
nor because of any gang war.
It's not the handiwork of any extremist political organization
as was being projected by some people.
In the face of an insensitive, biased, and corrupt system,
when women saw no hope of justice,
and when Akku's oppression had crossed all limits,
these women finally decided to snatch justice for themselves.
This incident is a warning for the existing system
that people will not tolerate injustice beyond a certain point
and will not wait endlessly for justice."
Fact Finding Committee, Nagpur.
[dramatic music]
We have to legitimize an illegitimate thing, an illegal thing.
Killing somebody is not my, uh, it's not my right.
It's not constitutional. It's not justice.
If a mob starts punishing criminals in this manner on the streets,
then I think, sooner or later, our social order will collapse.
Why does a mob kill?
If you are able to convince the mob that you don't have to worry, we are here,
would they do it?
Unless and until the administration or the police reassures them that,
"Yes, we have noted down your complaint.
We are working towards your beliefs, et cetera." Yes.
That is when they would have won our trust and nothing like this would have happened.
Of course, the fundamental… the question, the fundamental question
of the legal justice system failing in its duty remains, but…
Does that mean we can legitimize the lynching and killing
of a dreaded criminal?
Neither the Commissioner nor the ACP and the DCP
could have understood what those women went through
and how much they suffered.
How they fought their hunger and how they fought all their hardships.
If they would have seen it with their own eyes,
they wouldn't have turned a blind eye to all this and done something!
Don't they have daughters? Don't they have mothers or sisters?
Don't they have wives? Everyone has a family!
So their families must be protected but the families of the poor must suffer!
Only the poor face such atrocities.
Hence, they seek justice by such unfair means.
They have to resort to taking weapons.
Have you ever seen such things happen in an upper-class society? Tell me.
"Were you involved in Akku Yadav's murder case?
Were you? Tell me." People used to ask us at work.
-Hmm, people even refused to employ us. -Yes.
"They have murdered someone, so they might harm us as well."
That is why we lost all our jobs.
My brother and I were in jail,
so my poor parents had to pawn their jewelry to bail us out.
No one supported us at all.
Nobody helped us financially. Nobody.
Who should common people like us tell their problems to?
If they need something, who should they go to? Come on, tell me.
Who can they reach out to for justice?
Who do we go to? Where do we go to save our self-respect?
Who's there for us? Tell me. No one.
We were already financially weak and poor.
And then this incident broke us further.
We lost jobs and every little opportunity, so no income.
We lost our respect and image in society.
So that way, we suffered many hardships and then court delays kept happening.
That put our lives off the track completely.
You know, it ruined it.
[somber music]
The Akku Yadav murder case which shook the entire nation
will reach its conclusion today.
Along with 7 women,
21 others have been accused in this murder case.
Three of the accused have already died during the trial.
This case became very popular across India and the world, in fact.
And now, everyone is eager to know
about the verdict that the court will give today.
AKKU YADAV CASE VERDICT TODAY
AKKU WAS MURDERED IN 2004 IN COURT
10th November is my daughter Hushi's birthday.
She said, "Papa, don't go anywhere today. It's my birthday."
That was a very emotional moment for me.
I cried.
She is very close to me, you know, very attached to me.
She wouldn't let me go,
and she had never stopped me before like this.
So you know how one starts to feel, "Is this like a bad omen or something?"
[foreboding music]
[chain rattling]
[Vilas] And then, at 4:00 p.m., we were called inside the court
for the final judgment.
We sat still, you know, nervously.
And the judge said nothing.
"Go, I set you all free."
He said, "I set you all free."
So, for a few moments, we froze like a statue.
And at that time, we couldn't express our excitement.
Like when you ace an exam,
and you can't believe that all your hard work has finally been rewarded.
I started running excitedly.
I was finally relieved because of the judgment.
The judge had set me free at last.
I somehow pushed my way out, and I was the first one to leave.
Pushing and jostling just to get out of the court first.
Then Judge Suryavanshi spoke at a press conference.
You know, just like he would address a press conference?
He spoke to the press that way.
And he said something which he shouldn't have.
All right, after all, he is also a human being.
He said, "As you sow, so shall you reap."
These were his exact words.
Examination of the four eyewitnesses by the public prosecutor
cannot be relied on for various reasons.
Which is why all the accused in this case have been found "not guilty."
THE VERDICT CAME AFTER 10 YEARS
MOB DOESN'T HAVE A DEFINITIVE IDENTITY!
If everyone is innocent, then he should be alive.
In that case, nobody killed him.
All the accused were found innocent, right?
So if they didn't kill him, Akku is still alive.
Now how do I comment on justice?
[victim's husband] If justice had been delivered
through the legal system,
then maybe today…
I would not be… seated like this hiding my face.
-No one gave us justice. -Is this justice?
-No one gave us justice. -This is not how…
We fought and took our own justice our own way.
In this fight for justice, our bodies had to be transformed
into becoming lawyers, magistrates, and judges.
All within ourselves!
So we took care of ourselves.
Is this real justice?
See, all the people who suffered so much for so long
and the ones whose lives got completely ruined,
none of them have managed to get justice till now.
Akku's family did not get any justice.
He died in custody, so his mother deserved some support.
Her son was killed in police custody.
So the government should have compensated her
some way or the other, right?
Akku's bad deeds and doings also got buried with him.
You can't file a case against a dead person.
But his victims should surely be compensated, you know.
Shouldn't they get something?
They lost their dignity, isn't it? What about that?
When I go back and remember those days, I still shiver!
[woman 1] We are grateful that we are alive.
[woman 2] We should be grateful!
You understand, right?
[woman 3] I went through a lot because I had a family to look after.
And my daughter was of marriageable age.
I hid her from him. Would you believe me?
I hid her in a water tank, hid her in Manakapur as well.
We used to hide our kids from him, you know.
I had sent my son to his in-laws' place out of fear.
I wouldn't eat a morsel for days.
He had made my life such a living hell.
-You understand? -When I think about it,
-I start crying. -We cry when we think of those days.
He won't be welcomed in God's house.
I curse him so much!
His soul will wander like a dog.
It won't find peace.
[victim] Every year on 25th December,
I remember all those horrible things that had happened with me.
But I just keep it to myself. It remains buried inside me.
You know, sorrows are just like knots that remain tangled forever.
We can never forget them.
We can forget happy memories but sad ones leave scars.
Akku is one sad scar.
What is the truth?
Just outrages, violence, rapes, mindless murders, that's the truth?
But what about the experience that we lived through,
the hardships we faced year after year?
What people said that was printed,
incidents were recorded and published, but what about the pain?
Every single day, there was immense suffering.
Every single day. It's unimaginable.
[somber music]