Author: Kanhaiah Bhelari
Publication: The Week
Date: March 24, 2002
URL: http://www.the-week.com/22mar24/events3.htm
Mritunjay convicted but rape victim
plans to move High Court
The most infamous mother-son duo
of Bihar has been shown their place but Champa Biswas is far from
happy. The Patna district and sessions court recently sentenced Mritunjay
Yadav alias Bablu Yadav to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping Champa,
wife of senior IAS officer B.B. Biswas of the Jharkhand cadre. Bablu's
mother Hemlata, a former MLA of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal and co-accused
in the case, was let off taking into account the three years she spent
in jail pending trial. The special public prosecutor had asked the court
to take a lenient view in Hemlata's case.
"Hemlata should also have been punished,"
Champa, 31, told The Week. "She is as guilty as Mritunjay. She encouraged
him to rape me."
Champa was sore that no action has
been taken against RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav, who she claims also raped
her. In February 2000, she had told the court that Laloo was one of the
several political bigwigs who raped her between 1995 and 1997. Champa is
planning to move High Court against the verdict. Opposition leader Sushil
Kumar Modi suggested that it was now up to the women's organisations to
take up the case against Laloo.
Champa had charged Laloo with rape
even in her letter to the National Human Rights Commission. "The police
recorded my statement in 22 pages," she said. "But only some parts of the
statement were produced in court." She claimed that it was Hemlata, then
chairman of the state Women's Welfare Board, who took her to Laloo. Interestingly,
Mritunjay had penned Laloo's biography, which brought the family even closer
to the RJD chief.
Champa's ordeal started on September
7, 1995, soon after her family moved to an apartment complex at Hartali
Chauk in Patna, where Hemlata and Mritunjay also lived. She was first raped
in the servants' quarters of the complex, where she was lured with the
promise of getting domestic help. Mritunjay was apparently waiting for
her in the quarters and once she was in, the people who had brought her
thereÑone Jugal Kishore Gupta and his wife ReetaÑlocked the
door from outside.
Mritunjay continued to torture her
over the next two years and even compelled her to have sex with his friends.
Champa suffered in silence, fearing for her family and her own honour.
Mritunjay had even taken nude photos of her while she was unconscious.
According to a complaint filed by her at the Kotwali police station on
August 24, 1997, Mritunjay had raped her ageing mother, sister Reha, niece
Kalyani and maid Shefali Basu. Champa had to undergo abortion, and, to
prevent further pregnancies, she went in for sterilisation as well.
Champa's plight came to light the
day her sons saw 'Bablu uncle' 'hurting' their mother. Biswas was horrified
and helpless when he heard about it. He first reported the matter to the
home secretary and director-general of police but no action was taken.
"Hemlata threatened to kill me if I pursued the case," he said. The family
shifted to Delhi in fear and changed houses more than 20 times.
In Delhi, Biswas made Champa write
to the National Human Rights Commission, the SC/ST Commission and to Bihar
Governor S.S. Bhandari. The incident got wide publicity when Modi reveled
it at a press conference in 1998.
Bhandari had then written to the
Union home ministry suggesting that the case be handed over to the CBI.
In February 2000, Governor Vinod Chandra Pandey had also requested a CBI
inquiry. Champa apparently wanted a Supreme Court judge to investigate
the matter. In the event, Mritunjay was proven guilty even without a CBI
probe.
The trial was relatively smooth
despite some setbacks. First, Shefali, Reeta and Mritunjay's accomplice
Awadh Kishore Sinha, who took tuition for Champa's children, went missing.
Then Kalyani Biswas, a key prosecution witness, died in mysterious circumstances.
Surprisingly, the Patna Police did not even register a case regarding the
death.
"Whatever punishment Mritunjay gets
will not match the suffering I had to undergo," Champa had told The Week
in 1998. "I feel that I will get justice one day." Now, after the verdict,
she is determined to get full justice. Mritunjay's conviction will be her
elixir in the tough journey ahead.
