Jewel-less Crown: Saga of Life by BS Murthy (classic books for 12 year olds .TXT) 📕

merits and as Mehrotra had no precedents to quote against to poke his nose; Justice Sumitra began the hearing in her chambers. Though the trial commenced soon enough, that seemed an eternity to the accused.

When the stage was set for Paranjape to take the floor, he ordained the witness to remove her burka. While Mehrotra tried to size up the young woman who emerged from the veil, Paranjape tried to map the nuances of Suresh’s demeanor.

“Don’t you know who she is?” Paranjape asked Suresh.

“Objection Ms. Justice,” roared Mehrotra from his seat. “If she’s to further the prosecution, the indicted has a right to know who she is and not the other way round.”

“Ms. Justice,” said Paranjape spiritedly, “the interests of justice would suffer if the objection is sustained.”

“You may proceed,” said Justice Sumitra.

“Have you ever met her before?” Paranjape asked Suresh menacingly.

Having realized the import of her appearance, Suresh was flabbergasted beyond belief. Besides, he had no brief from Mehrotra either to tackle the ticklish tangle.

“Why not recall the road accident,” Paranjape seemed to prompt Suresh, “in which you nearly got killed?”

“Oh, God, what a turn,” blurted out Suresh in spite of himself.

“Now you may make your statement,” Paranjape triumphantly turned to the eager woman.

“I have a few questions for her,” said Mehrotra to Justice Sumitra.

“You may proceed.”

“What’s your name?” asked Mehrotra hoping to catch the witness off guard.

“Don’t I have the court’s permission to keep it for myself?”

“Well, where do you live?” Mehrotra asked the woman. “I hope you would part with that information at least.”

“It's in New Delhi.”

“How long have you been living here?”

“Maybe, since I was born.”

“When were you born?” asked Mehrotra and added turning to Paranjape. “Excuse me for wanting to know the age of your witness, a woman at that.”

“The question is irrelevant, Ms. Justice,” said Paranjape in objection.

“Objection sustained,” said Ms. Justice.

“How far away is your house from the Defense Colony?” resumed Mehrotra.

“It’s as far as from Saket.”

“Isn’t it possible that the indicted should’ve seen you in some mall or at the cinema in the recent past?”

“It’s quite possible.”

“Given your compelling beauty,” continued Mehrotra, “couldn’t he have retained your visage?”

“Objection, Ms. Justice!” said Paranjape. “She needn’t speculate about the proclivities of the accused.”

“Objection sustained,” ruled Justice Sumitra.

“That’s all, Ms. Justice,” Mehrotra made his bow.

“Bring the witness under oath,” the Judge ordered the daftari.

“I would tell the truth and nothing else but truth,” said the woman holding the Bhagvad Gita in her hand, “an untrammeled truth for an untainted justice.”

“You may depose before this court,” the Justice gave the green signal to the woman's damaging testimony.

“That evening, on 01 December 1974, I was walking by the pavement at Saket. When I sensed that a car came to a halt behind me, I instinctively turned back. He (she pointed her index finger at Suresh and found him colorless) yelled ‘Excuse Me’ from the driving seat. When I looked at him questioningly, he got down from a Mercedes and said he wanted my help in locating an address in the locality. Without a word he gave me a slip of paper with an illegibly scribbled address in a tiny handwriting. I stared at it long and hard to figure out the matter only to feel giddy and to be led by him into his car. It's clear that he would have smeared the note with some chloroform and the illegible writing in tiny letters was a ruse to make me take a closer look at it.

As he drove the car into the portico of a bungalow, I regained my consciousness but failed to gather my wits. I was still disoriented when he led me into a room and tried to disrobe me. The shock of it brought me back to my senses, and I resisted him all the way. Oh how, I pleaded with him to spare me since I was already engaged and that my wedding was round the corner. When he overpowered me at last, I begged him to leave me alone as I was having my periods then. But still he molested me bestially. As he savaged me like a brute, I ravaged him with my nails. When I cried shocked and shamed, he warned me not to report to the police.

“When he was driving me back to the city I realized we were in Mehrauli. As I sobbed all the way inconsolably, he began boasting about his exploits and foulmouthed women no end. Oh, how sickening it was to hear him say that while the poor husbands prop them up domestically, they let their lovers satiate their lust! After all, it was in the dubious nature of women to lead a double life. Being coy with her man, isn't woman eager to be vulgar with her lover? Why, aren't women   ever ready for a lay with as many whatever it takes! What hypocrisy, being whorish in their lovers arms, women pretend to be boorish in their nuptial bed? Why, it was a time-tested female tactic to befool husbands by shrouding their amour from them.”

As reciting his callous talk left a bad taste in her mouth, she drank some water before recapping his further bluster thus— rape, my foot, isn't it sex by default? What a fuss as man but tends women to get laid! Bet if they are not on the lookout for one-night stands with all and sundry, day and night that is. And yet they feign indifference if courted! Why not, they want to be pushed into the act for them to give in with an air of injured innocence. If only man were to press on, asking him to spare them, won’t they crave for him at their core? Oh, how they push for the climax faking resistance! It was in a woman’s nature to sham shame, gloating over her good fortune of getting laid. Well, he was no fool to take them at their words. Why does he appear to be one? Privy to their proclivities, won’t he brush aside their pro-forma objections? Won't he give them 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 Mercedes 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 fiancé 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 sex to 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 Mehrauli Murder 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. Ms. 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, Mehrotra, who had regained his wits by then, rose to cross-examine her.

“Who’s your fiancé?”

“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 Mehrotra superciliously to Paranjape before he went on pressing deviously on the witness. “You’ve stated that Mr. 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 Mehrotra 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 Mehrotra without a let up, “say, from friends or through pornography.”

“Well.....”

“Can you please tell this honorable court,” said Mehrotra 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 Mehrotra, 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 its own lines,” said the Judge in indignation.

“Ms. Justice may please appreciate the validity of my question in the face