“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.”