BALLIA: Nirbhaya’s mother sits alone on a cot in a narrow, windowless room, huddled under a quilt. Outside, her husband and sons are performing the last of the 13-day rites. This is the day when village elders announce Nirbhaya must now, officially, be forgotten. But her mother insists on remembering her.

" That boy everyone calls 'juvenile '; he beat her with an iron rod. He inserted it into her body till it went all the way up and yanked it out, and with it, her intestines. As she shouted for him to stop, he screamed at her, ‘Saali, mar! (Die, bitch)’ Yet the law calls him a juvenile."

This is the first time that the mother has spoken out. She told TOI that she wants the whole world to know of this horrific act. This was what Nirbhaya told her, the story of the brutality she was subjected to. The words constantly ring in the mother’s ears; they have left behind nightmarish memories that no exhortation to forget can erase.

"From nursery onwards, she was a bright child. She always topped her class. We had grand dreams for her. A few lakh rupees cannot replace my child. The culprits beat her to death. Now the only thing that will satisfy us is to see them punished. For what they did to her, they deserve to die."

Family members say there is no dearth of reminders that keep their wounds fresh. On Saturday morning, hours before they began the last rites, the family broke down again, as they went through a bag full of Nirbhaya’s clothes.

Her younger brother has saved a lock of her hair as remembrance, while the older one recounted how Nirbhaya, even when she was on ventilator support, asked him whether he was attending his coaching classes regularly.

"He lied; he said he missed just one class, even when he was with her in hospital every day," Nirbhaya’s cousin said.

'Told mom every detail'

They may have faced the milling crowds bravely, but inside, as he sees his mother’s eyes fill with tears, Nirbhaya’s younger brother, says, "We saw what they did to her. She told us, my mother especially, what that man who claims to be a juvenile did to her. Even in the state she was, she told us everything. We want you to know and write of it because that brutality was beyond imagination. He doesn’t deserve a second chance; he deserves only death."

Outside, Nirbhaya’s father is less vocal. He appears to be stoic about his tragedy. But family members say they’ve seen him weep bitterly when he’s alone. "The night after he arrived, he told us he was shaken by the state Didi was in at the hospital. He told us he suspected she would not survive, but said nothing, knowing it would break Nirbhaya’s mother," a family member said.

Now, as the family prepares for ‘Noone Milan’ (a ceremony where Nirbhaya’s father will be allowed to have salt and mingle with the family again), political leaders drop in, one after the other. Cheques are handed out, condolence speeches are made. All the while, Nirbhaya’s father sits, his head lowered. He remains silent.