The Good Girls. Sonia Faleiro

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Название The Good Girls
Автор произведения Sonia Faleiro
Жанр Юриспруденция, право
Серия
Издательство Юриспруденция, право
Год выпуска 0
isbn 9780802158215



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was often the case, practical matters took priority. Sohan Lal needed to get home right away, but to wake early one went to bed early. And almost everyone around him was already asleep. So he called a cousin in Katra, the same man who had helped him buy his new phone.

      ‘I have to get home,’ he told Yogendra Singh, whose prosperous family owned several vehicles.

      ‘Is it an emergency?’

      Yogendra Singh’s white Mahindra Bolero SUV had been giving him steering trouble. He had a motorcycle, but Sohan Lal and Harbans were with two others, and a motorcycle could hardly accommodate all five of them. Then he remembered a problem with the chain of his bike, which was just as well.

      ‘I won’t come out at night,’ he said.

      Beside Yogendra lay his wife – and at her breast, suckling contentedly, was their newborn daughter swaddled in a piece of sari cloth.

      ‘I won’t come alone,’ he said firmly.

      Sohan Lal hung up.

      Then curiosity got the better of Yogendra. Why would his cousin venture out in the dark?

      Taking along his father, Neksu Lal, and two brothers, he set off to investigate. The tall sturdy men carried torches to illuminate the inky night into which they now waded. Up and down, the unpaved streets were empty. All the doors were shut. Even the stray dogs that animated the hottest days with their relentless barks heaved with sleep.

      There were a number of people milling about the Shakya courtyard. Their girls had gone to the toilet, the newcomers were told. They hadn’t returned.

      The Shakyas didn’t say that someone had taken them.

      Even with this limited information it was clear that the matter was of the utmost seriousness. Girls didn’t disappear into thin air. But not a single person present suggested walking over to the police chowki that was located not five minutes away. If they were aware that there was a number they could call for help, they didn’t dial it.

      16 Uttar Pradesh was the murder capital of India: hindustantimes.com/lucknow/up-is-the-murder-capital-of-india/story-YXx35AZhrSvnXXHehbSNYP.html

      Every Eight Minutes

      Missing person cases continued to stream in, but by many accounts the police refused to take them seriously.

      Even in a tiny village like Katra where everyone was of the same social class, the Shakya family believed that the police would still take sides. They would choose to favour the person of their caste. And told that the culprit was Yadav, they would most likely wave away the Shakyas, being Yadavs themselves. ‘Raat gayi toh baat gayi,’ they would say, grunting back to sleep. The night has concluded and so has the incident.

      ‘It was easy to ask why we didn’t immediately go to the chowki,’ Jeevan Lal would later complain. Time was scarce and he preferred not to waste it on a thankless task.

      There was, however, another reason that Padma’s father held back.

      17 just as likely to kill: www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12696470

      18 ‘Why do you people have so many children’: nytimes.com/2007/01/07/world/asia/07india.html

      19 Ibid.

      20 The gruesome details made headlines: ndtv.com/india-news/nithari-rape-and-murder-case-moninder-singh-pandher-surender-koli-sentenced-to-death-1728506

      21 FIRs … in less than 60 per cent of such cases: tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/kaleidoscope/wanted-most-wanted-search-for-kids/105492.html

      22 an epidemic of missing and exploited children: hrw.org/world-report/2014/country-chapters/india

      23 12,361 people were kidnapped and abducted in Uttar