Bruised and broken PTC lecturer, who was allegedly raped by 3 male teachers, tells Hemington James she sat under a tree on Saturday night thinking of killing self
It was Mukesh Patel, a teacher at Narsinpura primary school in Kadi, who got me my first job. He was pretty friendly with me. But when Mukesh asked me to sleep with him, I refused. He called me up several times, asking me to meet him near a deserted canal in Kadi.
He kept insisting, and I thought there was no harm in meeting him. However, when I met him at the said spot, he tried to force himself on me. When I pushed him back, he got violent and started beating me up. He kept hitting me till I fell unconscious. Mukesh then clicked my nude pictures on his cellphone and left the place. After gaining consciousness, I wore my clothes and went back home.
He again called me up twice asking me to meet him. When I refused, he said he had my nude pictures and that he will show it to my parents and relatives if I ignored him. He also threatened to shame my father in front of our community members and said he will see to it that I don’t get married.
Mukesh had shown the nude pictures to his friends Ketan and Dinesh, who are also government school teachers. All three of them started harassing me. Not only Mukesh, even his two friends raped me near the canal several times in the past eight months.
Scared they will show my nude pictures to my parents, I kept mum and kept meeting them whenever they summoned me. Every time they raped me and hurled abuses at me. Once, Mukesh hit me so hard that my left ear started bleeding. I went to a doctor who said that my ear drum was damaged.
I stopped talking to the three men last month. I felt it was better to die than surrendering to those devils.
On Saturday [June 19], Mukesh called me up in the morning on my cellphone and started abusing me. I was in the college at that time. He threatened me with dire consequences if I dared to open my mouth. I shot back saying I will inform his school principal about his misdoings. He laughed at me and told me that he and his friends will easily prove me a liar if I went against them. I got scared and started crying.
My colleagues sensed something was wrong and asked me whether I was in trouble. I told them I had fever and left the college. A lady teacher dropped me home.
At home, I kept thinking how to deal with this and finally made up my mind. I left for Mukesh’s school in Kalyanpur to register a complaint against him with his principal. But Mukesh saw me entering the school and started screaming at me, asking me to leave.
Sensing trouble for himself, he said that he and Dinesh were from the same community and she won’t be able to do anything against them. Fearing a scene, I left the place, went home and told everything to my parents.
That day, around 2 pm, I and my parents went to meet Mukesh, Dinesh and Ketan at Kalyanpur. My father scolded Mukesh for troubling me. But he was unrepentant and felt humiliated in front of his friends. He told my father that he would come to our village and break his bones.
As soon as we came back home, my father started getting calls from my relatives who asked him whether I was being a bother to him. Mukesh had called them up and spoken ill about me. My father broke down and said: ‘My reputation is gone’.
I couldn’t take that and decided to leave home. Around 10 pm on Saturday, I left my house with a purse in hand. I walked 10 kilometres and reached Chhatral. Tired, I sat under a tree, thinking what to do. Images of the three men who had made life hell for me conjured up in front of my eyes. Till 5 in the morning, I did not move from that spot. At dawn, I hired a chhakda that had two other passengers in it. After dropping both of them, the driver asked me where was it I wanted to go. I asked him to take me to Ahmedabad. He dropped me at Rakhial. It was 7 am. I called my father to inform him I will never come back. I even called up Mukesh and told him he had tortured me a lot and I will never forgive him.
I hired another auto and left for ST bus depot at Geeta Mandir. I got into a bus to Kalol at 8.45 am. I bought a pesticide from a medical store. Next, I checked into a hotel named Amrit, hired a room and consumed poison. Worried, the hotel staff may have to face tough questions from cops if I collapse there, I checked out. I reached Kalol ST stand. I was thinking of getting into a bus to Kadi when I began feeling dizzy and collapsed unconscious. Onlookers managed to contact my parents since I had an identity card and my father’s phone number in my cellphone contacts list.
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Cops get 6-day remand of the two accused
The two accused in the Kadi rape case — Dinesh Patel and Ketan Thakar — who were arrested by the cops, were sent to six days police custody by the district magistrate of Mehsana on Wednesday. Kadi police are on the lookout for Mukesh Patel, the key accused in the Kadi gangrape case. He is the only person who is still at large in this case.
“My men are on a lookout for Mukesh. He will be caught anytime. The remand of the two accused will give us some vital clues in this case. We are hopeful of solving the case soon,” said G V Barot, police inspector, Kadi police station.
Meanwhile the victim, who is undergoing medical treatment at a private hospital in Kalol, will be shifted to Mehsana Civil Hospital on Thursday morning. She has been given police protection. The victim has alleged that she was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by three teachers of government school.
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