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      Grove Press

      New York

      Also by Sonia Faleiro

      Beautiful Thing: Inside the Secret World of Bombay’s Dance Bars

      The Girl

      UM

      IFM and ZFM

      Copyright © 2021 by Sonia Faleiro

      Maps © Emily Maffei

      Jacket design by Ahlawat Gunjan

      Jacket photograph © Simon Wilkes/Unsplash

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission ofthe publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or [email protected].

      All Internet addresses given in this book were correct at the time of going to press.The author and publisher regret any inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist, but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.

      First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Bloomsbury Circus, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

      First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition: February 2021

      Printed in Canada

      ISBN 978-0-8021-5820-8

      eISBN 978-0-8021-5821-5

      Typeset by Newgen KnowledgeWorks Pvt. Ltd., Chennai, India

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data is available for this title.

      Grove Press

      an imprint of Grove Atlantic

      154 West 14th Street

      New York, NY 10011

      Distributed by Publishers Group West

       groveatlantic.com

      ‘Women must particularly be guarded against evil inclinations, however trifling [they may appear]; for, if they are not guarded, they will bring sorrow on two families.’

      —The Laws of Manu

      Index of Characters

      The Village of Katra

      Padma Shakya, sixteen years old

      Her father Jeevan Lal, a farmer, and stepmother Sunita Devi

      Ram Sakhi, Padma’s biological mother who died when she was two years old

      Lalli Shakya, fourteen years old

      Her father Sohan Lal, the Shakya family patriarch and older brother to Jeevan Lal and Ram Babu, his wife Siya Devi and their four other children: daughter Phoolan and sons Virender, Parvesh and Avnesh. Lalli is their youngest daughter

      Ram Babu, Padma and Lalli’s paternal uncle, his wife Guddo and their seven children

      Ramdevi, Padma and Lalli’s paternal grandmother who lives with Jeevan Lal and family

      Manju Shakya, a cousin spending her summer holidays with Lalli’s family, aged twelve

      A first cousin of the Shakya brothers, Babu ‘Nazru’ Ram, aged twenty-six. He lives with his family in the midst of the Katra fields

      Rajiv Kumar Yadav, a neighbour who draws Nazru’s attention to the girls’ behaviour in the fields

      Yogendra Singh Shakya, a prosperous cousin of the Shakya brothers, who the brothers often turned to for help

      Prem Singh Shakya, Yogendra’s brother. He saw Lalli talking on the phone on the day she disappeared

      Their father, Neksu Lal

      The Hamlet of Jati

      Darvesh ‘Pappu’ Yadav, aged nineteen, watermelon farmer

      His father Veerpal ‘Veere’ Yadav, mother Jhalla Devi and brothers Avdesh and Urvesh, both in their twenties

      Avdesh’s wife, Basanta, and their infant daughter Shivani

      Pappu’s cousin and close friend Raju, in whose shack he often spent the night

      The Village of Nabiganj

      Ram Chander, Padma’s oldest maternal uncle and her late mother’s oldest brother

      His son, Ram Avtar, aged eighteen

      His younger brother Kanhaiya Lal, who had been told a dream that predicted what happened to the girls

      Ram Chander’s three other brothers, who, along with their families, comprise around thirty people living together

      Police

      Sub-Inspector Ram Vilas Yadav, aged fifty-seven, in charge of the police outpost located in Katra village

      Chattrapal Singh Gangwar, aged fifty-six, recently promoted to Head Constable

      Constable Sarvesh Yadav, aged thirty-nine, accused of dereliction of duty towards the Shakya villagers

      Constable Raghunandan Singh Yadav, who assisted the family

      Constable Satinder Pal Singh Yadav, a quiet man who did as he was told

      Inspector Ganga Singh Yadav, Station Officer of the police station in Ushait and first Inspecting Officer on the case

      Mukesh Kumar Saxena, a locally powerful police officer who went on to head a Special Investigation Team on the case

      Maan Singh Chauhan, Superintendent of Police, highest-ranking officer present on the day the bodies were found

      Post-Mortem Team

      Lala Ram, the former sweeper who conducted the post-mortem

      Dr Rajiv Gupta, general practitioner, District Hospital, Budaun, who oversaw the post-mortem

      Dr Pushpa Panth Tripathi, gynaecologist and obstetrician, District Women’s Hospital, Budaun

      They were accompanied by Dr Avdhesh Kumar, a senior surgeon at the District Hospital and A. K. Singh, the hospital pharmacist

      Politicians

      Narendra Modi, the new Prime Minister of India who was sworn in on 26 May, two days before the children were found

      Akhilesh Yadav, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, who was in control of the state police

      Mayawati Prabhu Das, Dalit leader with cult status in Uttar Pradesh

      Bhagwan Singh Shakya, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party and a Shakya community leader

      Sinod Kumar Shakya, a member of Mayawati’s party and an elected member of the state legislative assembly. The Shakya family were his constituents