A dark tale from inside the closet: Section 377 has ruined many lives, including those of straight people
People pushed into a corner hit back. Some times, without caring who gets hurt.
Rajesh (name changed) was a guy who was never interested in getting married. “I am not husband material,” he would frequently say.
While all of us got married in our mid-twenties, Rajesh would stick his neck out in our WhatsApp groups and say that marriage was not his thing. We obviously made fun of him, and made obscene comments about an imaginary sexual dalliance we had created only to annoy him.
Rajesh was from a conservative middle-class family in Uttar Pradesh, and we all knew that his vow of not marrying wouldn’t last long. As soon as he reached thirty — in fact, the day after he partied with all of us — his mother called him over.
People should be free to choose their partners. And free to reject those they don't want to live with. (Photo: PTI/file)
Rajesh reached home to find at least 12 of his closest relatives sitting in the main hall, his mother in one bedroom, his daadi in the other. Both unwell, apparently. His father was nowhere to be seen. His “bade mausa” (elder uncle) broke the news to him.
They had fixed his marriage to a girl from his ancestral village, who was studying to be a doctor in Allahabad.
The roka ceremony (a formal engagement ceremony, according to Hindu customs) had been fixed for the next day.
“Let the roka get done, this is not marriage. You two can take your own time to get to know each other, we will fix the marriage date after one year. You sister is getting older, we cannot keep her waiting just because you haven’t made up your mind. Take one year after the roka. But the roka has to be done. We will all stay here till then,” his mausha declared.
Within 24 hours, Rajesh was engaged to Aarti.
Aarti appeared equally disinterested during the ceremony. In her twenties, she kept her hair very short, was about five feet, five inches tall, had a wheatish complexion and seemed very fit. Rajesh quite liked her, but they never spoke to each other before the ceremony. After the roka, they were allowed to speak for about half an hour, which went in a jiffy. They never exchanged numbers.
Rajesh returned to Mumbai seven days later and rejoined office.
Five days later, his mobile flashed. It was a WhatsApp message from an unknown number. “Hi. Aarti ths sde. Cll me whn free” (Hi Aarti this side, Call me when free).” Rajesh returned the call and they had a brief conversation, which can best be described as “cordial”.
Aarti told him she was coming to Mumbai with her best friend, Soundarya. She wanted to see Mumbai and of course get her best friend to meet Rajesh. She had some conference to attend too.
“I will be staying a hotel in Vile Parle, near the airport. Let's have coffee and try to get know each other," she wrote. Rajesh took a little pause and said, “Of course!”
She then suddenly wrote: “You are planning to marry me, na?” To which Rajesh again said, "Of course!" This time, for good measure, he added two exclamation marks. He knew if he said anything else, his bade mausa would get a call.
He hated his bade mausa.
Over the next few weeks, the two talked on WhatsApp and on the phone, over trivial things like the weather, elections, India’s nuclear policy, Satyajit Ray and Jean Jacques Rousseau. But Aarti always asked him whether he was serious about marrying her, and Rajesh always answered in the affirmative.
Finally, one month later, Aarti and Soundarya were in Mumbai.
The date was July 14, 2014. They put up at a star hotel near the airport and in the evening, they met at a nearby coffee shop.
Soundarya wore a cropped top with jeans, looking extremely beautiful. Aarti wore an oversized baggy bush shirt along with trousers, sleeves rolled up. Rakesh even joked that Aarti was looking like a mawwali bhai (gangster). Aarti didn’t seem to mind.
They spoke for an hour, after which Soundarya said they wanted to party. Rajesh was never the party-going kind, and he never wanted to marry someone who loved partying —it was a red flag for him. But he politely agreed to accompany them.
The girls danced and partied, but their body language started to make Rajesh uncomfortable. Later, in their room, they asked Rajesh to click a photo while they kissed each other.
Once they were drunk, they started fondling each other in front of Rajesh, goading him to take pictures on their phone. They even requested Rakesh to be part of a threesome with them. Aarti said she and Soundarya were partners and were married to each other. She then proceeded to take sex toys out of her bag.
After a point, Rajesh could bear it no longer.
He politely walked off from the room and came back to his small apartment in Bandra. He thought God had saved him from an unhappy marriage, and heaved a sigh of relief.
The next day, he sent a short WhatsApp message to Aarti, saying he couldn’t marry her and that he was very sorry. He wished her all the best in life.
There was no reply from Aarti or her partner Soundarya for three days. On the fourth day came a WhatsApp message from Aarti. It was a .pdf copy of a medical report from a nondescript government hospital near Kanpur.
The report said Aarti had been penetrated within the last 24 hours, there were scratch marks on her body, and a foreign object seemed to have been inserted in her genitals, even though it didn’t cause any injury. The medical officer also recorded the psychological trauma she was in. The report could not record anything else because they didn’t have advanced medical equipment.
Based on the findings, the medical officer concluded that it might have been a case of rape.
When he received the medical report, something exploded inside Rajesh. He rushed out of office, went home and called his father.
By this time, the father had also received calls from anxious parents of the girl, enquiring about what had happened between the two. The girl had accused Rajesh of raping her with the promise of marriage. She claimed that he broke off the engagement soon after he finished raping her.
A meeting with the two families ensued within 24 hours as the girl threatened to lodge a police complaint based on the medical report.
As both the families agreed not to proceed with a criminal case came a demand from the girl — a sum of Rs 10 lakh in cash, and that too within 24 hours.
In a week, the money was paid to the girl and the marriage called off. The girl gave it in writing that she was withdrawing from the marriage voluntarily and had no complaint against anybody. All the evidence was destroyed by both the families, including the original copy of the medical report.
Rajesh joined his office in Mumbai after a month-long leave.
He is still single.
-------------------------------------------------
If India had an atmosphere where Aarti could come out about her sexuality to her family, maybe she wouldn’t have had to stage such a huge drama to force Rajesh to withdraw from the marriage.
As we celebrate the SC verdict, it is time to remember all those who have suffered because of the law. (Photo: PTI/file)
Aarti knew that they both came from conservative families, and the case would never come out in the open if she agreed to not press charges. Moreover, after such an “ordeal”, her family would not pressure her very soon into marriage again.
For Aarti, it was the perfect plan to continue staying with her partner.
But she didn’t consider the possibility of scarring Rajesh for life.
The threat of getting his life ruined by a false complaint has made Rajesh cynical about life, marriage and having a healthy relationship with a woman.
Perhaps Aarti is not even aware of what she has done to Rajesh.
At a time when the Supreme Court has finally decriminalised gay sex, it’s time to remember that a lot of people have suffered because of it.
Had India recognised the rights of gay people earlier, or had society understood their need to have a partner of their choice, a lot of innocent people, just like Rajesh, wouldn’t have suffered.
The menace of false rape cases in India is an elephant in the room. Here is some research that talks about the rising menace of false rape cases in India. There are several online petitions like this one that urge the government to take punitive actions for filing false rape cases.
Even websites advocating women's rights have written about the menace of false rape cases in India.
Another report from the Jaipur police says that in 2016, it saw an “alarming rise” in the number of false rape cases. The Jaipur police recorded 330 rape cases and of the 276 cases solved, 43% turned out to be fake. Police told the media that women filed these cases to “extort money or implicate the accused.”
That some women misuse the law has been established, over and over again. The need to frame checks and balances is highlighted by cases such as Rajesh’s, who perhaps will never be able to lead a normal life.
But Rajesh is lucky that he is alive to tell his tale.
Countless others, falsely accused of sexual and dowry-related violence, take their own lives because they are unable to bear the stigma.
I don’t want to turn them into statistics.
But with the Supreme Court’s landmark verdict legalising gay sex, I sincerely pray that these statistics will now be a part of our country’s dark history.
(Note: All original names involved in the incident have been changed to protect identity)