Once Upon A Time: Belting it out

The atmosphere outside Inspector General of Police Shrikant Jadhav’s office in Rohtak is charged. Over 30 representatives from seven NGOs, huddled under a tin shed, animatedly discuss “getting justice” for the “Rohtak sisters”. Right at the centre of the group, flanked by their two women constable guards, are Pooja (19) and Aarti (22), the siblings who made national headlines after a video of them thrashing three boys with their belts on a Haryana Roadways bus from Rohtak to Sonipat, went viral on November 30, 2014. The girls filed a police complaint of harassment against the three boys, Deepak Hooda, Mohit and Kuldeep Singh, who were promptly arrested and later released.

Six months on, the sisters are back at the IGP’s office. Two sets of “morphed obscene” pictures of the girls have gone viral on the Internet, after being uploaded in May. The girls claim the pictures are “meant to avenge” the November incident.

“We have to fight this,” declares Aarti in a raised voice to get the attention of the group. Dressed in blue jeans and a T-shirt, the feisty BCA student at IC Government College for Women in Rohtak talks like a leader, adding she is ready to “fight the battle for 20 years.”

Oblivious to the discussion around her, Pooja hums a tune in a throaty voice. “I love to sing and dance, it helps me relax. These pictures make me sick,” she adds.

Their “act of bravery” on the Haryana Roadways bus had caught the eye nationally. But then more videos had surfaced showing the girls similarly thrashing other men, and questions were raised about their intentions.

Now the sisters find little support. Except for a motley group of local activists, nobody speaks up for them over the pictures. But Pooja is undeterred. She points to the belt she wears on her purple trousers. “Our case has given confidence to girls, they ask me which belt I wear, they even copy my hairstyle,” she says. “Even Narendra Modi’s morphed pictures are on Facebook and WhatsApp,” interjects Aarti.

However, the sisters admit in private to “living in fear”. “Life has changed, sometimes we want to end our lives,” says Pooja. They claim to have been “pressured by several people” to withdraw the case against the three boys they filed in December 2014. “Some threaten us with acid attacks, others with killing our younger brother,” says Aarti.

Their close friends have drifted away too. “They don’t talk to us, they fear the police may question them,” says Pooja. The friend who told them about the morphed images was questioned too “and doesn’t speak to us now”, they add.

At Thana Khurd, a dusty village of a little over 500 families in Kharkhoda tehsil of Sonipat district, Pooja and Aarti’s black labrador Kittu stands guard outside their house. “If my daughters had died, they would have been called martyrs, but they are fighting, so they are bad,” says their mother Santosh (43). Their grandmother Khemo Devi (70) promptly butts in. “Why should they die?” she says, lighting a bidi.

The walls in Aarti and Pooja’s room are adorned with the bravery awards handed to them after the November 30 incident. The family talks about the one that is “missing”: the Haryana government’s award that was held back after the second video emerged.

“We don’t care about that,” insists Santosh, “ but we are very tense about these morphed images.” She claims she and her husband, who works with the Haryana Electricity Department, are “modern” parents who let their three daughters (including one elder to Aarti and Pooja) “wear jeans”. Though she claims villagers’ support, most in Thana Khurd deny even knowing the girls.

In Aasan village, 25 km away, Deepak sits quietly at a small general store run by his father. The 19-year-old, along with Kuldeep (20) and Mohit (21), was beaten up by Aarti and Pooja for allegedly passing “lewd” comments. “When I got onto the bus, my friends were just trying to get a seat for an old lady but the sisters pounced on them,” he claims. Deepak and Kuldeep had cleared the preliminary exams for entry into the Army, but in the wake of the national uproar following the video, they were disqualified.

“They have ruined my son’s life. They even asked for a Scooty, but why should we be blackmailed?” says Shripal (46), Deepak’s father, who is hoping that the case comes up in court soon and his son cleared.

Deepak and Kuldeep are pursuing their BA from the Jat Heroes Memorial College in Rohtak and seem “lost” regarding the future. “My father was in the Army, I wanted to join too, now there is nothing left. I have to appear in court every month,” fumes Kuldeep, who has strolled into Deepak’s shop.

At Mohit’s house, his mother is busy preparing the evening tea. He listens reticently as his father Harish (41) talks about a documentary that “nails” the sisters’ lie. “If there is proof that my son has uploaded those obscene pictures, I will kill him,” he announces. Questioning the girls’ “character” he adds, “If I was their father, I would shoot them, not let them roam around with guards. My daughter goes to college too, but she is plain and simple, not like these girls.”
Mohit claims he has “never seen” the sisters after the brawl, though Pooja asserts that she has seen him “laugh and smirk” at her many times at the same Rohtak bus stop.

Since “court cases take forever to close in India”, the boys have also approached the khap panchayat to negotiate with the family of the sisters.

Back at the IGP’s office, the sisters ask the officer about the status of the “ashleel photos” case — a boy from Dharotha village was held after the sisters filed a complaint on May 16 but then let off. Jadhav gives them no specific assurance, except that “investigation is on”. He asks them to “hand over” their phones to trace the miscreants, but the sisters refuse and leave unsatisfied.

Back at the same Rohtak bus-stop, they head home on the same route that changed their lives forever. As their bus chugs off towards Sonipat, the sisters say, “We are not scared, we like taking risks. We are doing this for other women.”