india

Updated: Aug 02, 2020 00:46 IST

She was kept as a ‘sex slave’ before being thrown out with a threat that her videos would be posted online and she would be raped again if she approached the police. In captivity, she was not even allowed to peep out of the Rae Bareli house where she was kept, the Unnao gang rape victim, who was set afire on Thursday, wrote in her FIR lodged with the Lalgunj police.

She disregarded the threats and went ahead and filed two FIRs -- the first with Bihar Bahta police (Unnao) on March 5 and the second the next day with Lalgunj (Rae Bareli) police.

For her relentless pursuit of justice and dignity - which, she claimed before the magistrate, was robbed several times by Shivam Trivedi, the man she loved and who had promised to marry her – she was set on fire on Thursday.

The narrative of the FIR reads that when she did look out of the house, she was beaten up and raped again. Similar is the text of her complaint to the chairperson of State Women’s Commission, Lucknow.

Born to a marginal farmer in a village in the constituency of UP Assembly speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit, the victim said that Shivam lured her with a marriage proposal. As she believed him, she accompanied Shivam to Lalgunj, where he planned to marry her. But she was raped instead and the act video-recorded on his mobile phone. This, she said in the FIR, was the beginning of her ordeal. He would threaten her to put the video on social media, and rape her again.

He kept her in a rented room and a strict vigil was maintained. He told her that he would kill her if she ever dared to venture out. He regularly changed houses and cities. On January 19, 2018, she said in the FIR, she finally confronted Shivam and asked him to marry as he promised. Shivam took her to a Rae Bareli court and prepared a marriage contract. After keeping her in Rae Bareli for a month on the pretext of marrying her soon, he dumped her back in the village a month later. This time when she met Shivam, who comes from an affluent family, he threatened her that he would kill her and her family members.

Scared and disappointed, the victim took refuge in the house of her aunt in Rae Bareli. Shivam somehow managed to get her address and reached her aunt’s house on December 12, 2018. He again promised to marry her and even took her to a temple where he pledged the same before a deity. But on the way back, Shivam and his brother Shubham dragged her to a field and raped her at pistol point, the FIR said.

In the FIR she also mentioned that she approached the Rae Bareli police, which sent her away without lodging her complaint.

Only after the intervention of the court, an FIR was lodged under section 376D (gang rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC first at Bihar Bahta police station on March 5, 2019 and then at Lalgunj on March 6.