New Delhi: Thirty years ago, a 12 year old and a student of Class 7 was living with her sister and brother–in-law in UP’s Shahjahanpur district and had just learned how to ride a bicycle.
Her sister was a teacher by profession while her brother-in-law was a government servant.
Savita, was her name and her father was in the army while her mother, four other sisters, and two brothers lived in a village in Hardoi.
After the school, she would ride the cycle in their neighbourhood every evening. When a group of men would watch her, laughed on her she fell. They would also say “Dekho, mohalla mein nayi chidiyaan aayi hai.”
Among this group of men were Razi and Hasan, then aged 20 and 22.
It was during one of the summer afternoon, when Savita was alone at home when Razi and Hasan had allegedly jumped over the wall and entered her house.
One gagged her and the other tied her legs and raped her for nearly 45 minutes.
After raping her, they warned her that if I told anyone, they would kill her sister.
This continued for months whenever she was at home alone but she did not open her mouth. After few months, while she was still being raped she got her first period and this never happened again in the following month.
Savita thought that she was bleeding because of what was happening to her because of the two men, she had no idea what period was all about.
After her first period, she never menstruated again. Savita also started falling ill, she was unable to eat or sleep. Few months later she also dropped out of school. Her health started deteriorating and began “fainting repeatedly.”
Seeing her health condition her elder sister took her to a hospital, where doctor informed that she was pregnant.
The doctors said that she “might not survive” an abortion. She was three months’ pregnant.
What happened next?
Savita’s pregnancy have left everyone shocked, it was then when she had confessed everything to her sister. Savita’s sister and brother-in-law instead of informing the Police, they had gone to Razi and Hasan’s parents and told them about all that had happened.
“Their father refused to believe us,” Savita said.
She said that her father was angry and said that she had ruined his reputation, while her mother said it’s best for them to not go back to their village as people had started to know about her pregnancy.
She gave birth to the child at the age of 13, and the baby was given away.
Savita’s marriage, divorce
Savita and her sister continued living in Rampur. In 2000, when she turned 18, her parents and other siblings “married her off”. Although, she wanted to continue her studies, her new husband did not allow her to continue her studies.
She had given birth to a baby boy in 2002, she was happy but in 2006, her husband was informed about his wife’s past life through someone from Savita’s village where her parents lived.
Within months he asked Savita to leave with their four-year-old son.
Soon after leaving her husband’s place, Savita and her son left Rampur for Lucknow. She then started living in a rented apartment and began taking up odd jobs.
Reunion with her son
Then, one fine morning in 2007, she opened her front door and found a 13-year-old boy standing at her doorstep.
When she asked about him, he told that he was her son and this is how she reunited with her son.
FIR and Arrest
In June 2021, the police had collected DNA samples from Raju and from the two men accused of raping his mother when she was 12 years old. In April 2022, a test result revealed that one of the accused name Naqi Hasan’s DNA tested positive (matched) with Raju’s – they were father and son.
The case started becoming stronger and the two brothers went absconding. Soon they were in Hyderabad.
On August 3, Razi was arrested and Hasan was arrested on August 10.
In the confession statement Razi said that he never imagined that this case would be opened after all these years. While, Hasan had also “confessed to the crime.”
