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UMMEED
'Ummeed' celebrates the courage, determination and journey of women who have stood up against violence and emerged stronger. Through this sharing, we hope to inspire others to take the first step.
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To Choose, Or Not To Choose – Justice*
Chandni, a bubbly 11 year old, studying in school was weaving a dream just like her peers, in spite of experiencing domestic violence almost every day in her home, where she, along with her mother and siblings, was beaten by her drunkard father every other day. Only through her ambitious dreams, she balmed her pain and kept hoping for that one day when all this will be a matter of past.
But one ill-fated night, Chandni felt something moving up her body. She woke up shocked and was traumatized to see her father lying naked beside her and touching her body. The moment he realized she was awake, he covered her mouth with his one hand, and with the other he forcefully removed her ‘salwar’ and undergarments and forced himself upon her. She tried to resist but he was physically overpowering. After the assault, he threatened her not to speak of this incident to anyone. On this night, her dreams came crashing down and broke into pieces. The limit of her tolerance of other violence, too, crossed the threshold when her own biological father sexually assaulted her!
Since then, Chandni, who was in prime of her teen, became a regular prey of her father’s sexual hunger and her nights turned into nightmares as he would come home drunk and force himself on her almost every night threatening her that he would kill her and others if this information was let out. Gradually he became more aggressive and he would sexually assault her even during day time when Chandni would be home alone after school. He would not even spare her when she was menstruating. Chandni bore this torture silently for almost five years.
Since Chandni had keen interest in her studies, he would blackmail her about stopping her studies if she resisted him and hit her with a wooden bat or kick and punch her. When her mother came to save her, he would also hit her and even sexually assault her.
He started keeping a watch on her to make sure that she does not share this information with anyone and in that madness he even started following her to her school. When she was around 16, on the last day of her exam, she mustered courage and left for her elder step-sister’s marital home and narrated the whole incident to her. With the help of her step-sister, she registered an FIR against her father.
Majlis’s intervention started when the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) referred Chandni’s case to us and appointed our team member as support person. Right from home visits, to regular follow-ups in the various necessary legal proceedings, our representative has been dedicatedly following her case during the various preliminary stages. But it took three years for the case to reach the stage of trial. During this period Chandni was under constant pressure from her mother to retract. Since the father was the bread winner, her mother wanted him to be released. She was annoyed with Chandni for filing the complaint and would physically assault her to agree to withdraw the case. Despite this Chandni remained firm with our help and was keen to get her father punished for what he had done to her.
Meanwhile, Chandni became a major and was in a relationship, so the mother tried to convince her that she will soon get her married and there after she will not be staying with them and she will be safe from the clutches of her father.
But sadly, on the day of her deposition, Chandni stopped responding to our messages and when she came to court, she refused to acknowledge our presence. In the witness box, under tremendous pressure from her mother, she retracted.
We were disheartened and we thought the case will end in acquittal as Chandni, her mother and step sister denied that Chandni was sexually abused by her father. They made up the story that the father assaulted Chandni because of which she was annoyed with him and hence filed the FIR.
However, to our surprise the case ended in conviction and the father was awarded a sentence of 12 years. The judge was sympathetic towards Chandni and understood that under pressure, due to poverty and the long passage of three years from the time of filing the FIR, all this led to the retraction which is understandable.
The judge commented: “Every child has utmost respect for and trust in his (her) parents. Considering the Indian culture, it can be understood that it becomes very difficult for any child who is sexually abused by her own father since the age of 11 years to retaliate against him.”
The judge relied on the supportive evidence given by the police officer who had recorded her statement, the doctor who had examined her where she had narrated the incident, her statement under S.164, Cr.PC made on oath before the magistrate, the deposition of the support person from Majlis who affirmed what Chandni had narrated about the sexual abuse. The judge relied on judgements of Supreme Court, the Bombay High Court and other High Courts where conviction was upheld despite retraction.
The only dark spot in this case is that the judge has ordered that the amount of Rupees Three Lakhs awarded to her under the Manodhairya scheme must be recovered from her. We feel that it is unjust since the case has ended in conviction, despite the retraction. The father was the bread winner and the family is going through extreme financial hardship. The amount would have been a great help to Chandni and her mother.
Understanding these intricacies is very important. Presenting our challenges on a case-to-case basis is necessary for the reader to grasp that all interventions do not progress in a linear manner and end in a success story. There are many ups and downs along the way to the trial. As far as Chandni is concerned, she married her boyfriend and this entire ordeal is behind her now. We hope she is happy and is at peace. Going through this journey, itself, is ‘Ummeed’!
(*The Title has been adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.)
Names have been changed to protect privacy.
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Enclosed is the story in Hindi and Marathi
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Our mailing address is:
Majlis Legal Centre, 4 A/2, Golden Valley,
Kalina Kurla road, Santacruz East,
Mumbai 400 098.
Contact Nos : 022-26661252 / 26662394 / 26668539
Copyright © 2020 Majlis Legal Centre, All Rights Reserved.
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