Rueful Expectations

Everything was going fine when suddenly a dark incident took place in our college.

Students were in the classrooms attending lectures. Suddenly there was a loud shriek. The sound came from the direction of the girls’ hostel. The professors and the students left the classrooms to check the frantic incident. Someone shouted that a girl had committed suicide and was lying motionless on the floor. I rushed, marking my way through the crowd gathered in the college corridors and reached the spot where the body lay. There was a crowd of onlookers standing in a circle but keeping a good distance from the body. People were talking loudly among themselves. I heard someone say that the police have been informed and they would be coming here any moment. I moved a little closer. I could not believe my eyes. The girl lying on the floor was Sheffali. She was the girl we had seen crying in the canteen a few days ago.

I could make out that she was still alive. ‘Someone, please call the ambulance,’ I shouted.

The ambulance had been called by someone earlier because it arrived soon after. Sheffali was put on the stretcher and then the ambulance sped away to take her to the hospital. From the emergency, she was immediately taken to the operation theatre. The operation took about four hours. I did not know Sheffali, but I did not leave the hospital and stayed in the corridor in front of the operation theatre. There were other people too who waited along with me. Aditi and Vineet had also arrived and we stood together, praying for Sheffali’s recovery. ‘Sorry, we couldn’t save her,’ said the doctor in white coat who had just come out of the operation theatre.

There was a crowd of people, mostly students and the college staff, who were anxiously waiting for the doctor to make a positive revelation. I felt sick on hearing the sad news. I felt dizzy and weak on my limbs.

The college authorities informed Sheffali’s parents about the tragedy. They flew down boarding the first flight and arrived at the college. They were crying uncontrollably. The loss of their dear daughter was too much for them to bear. It was an unbearable sight to see parents mourning the loss of their child. Sheffali’s classmates were present. They consoled her parents and talked to them. They wanted to know what had happened to their daughter. Why a young and promising young girl like Sheffali had decided to end her life? Was it a suicide as everyone was saying it was, or was there some foul play?

Her funeral took place the next day. Her mortal remains were consigned to flames. The entire college turned up to bid farewell to her. The students wanted to know the real reason for her death.

Sheffali, you are heaven’s child now. May your soul rest in peace!

A suicide knocks the ground from under our feet. The person performing this horrible act does not think of the tragic effects it would have on his or her loved ones. For the parents especially, it is most difficult to come out of such tragedy.

The news spread rapidly like fire in the forest. All local news channels covered it in their bulletins as breaking news. ‘NIT engineering student  commits suicide’ screamed the headlines. The channels were interested because of its sensitivity. There was little effort to find out what led her to take her life and the actual cause of her death.

I wish I could become an engineer. I see myself halfway there. But this world thinks petty. There is no place in it for my dreams. I would never think of this, but sometimes things go beyond you.

I never told my parents that my teachers harassed me. My college is responsible for my death. I can’t bear this torture anymore. I hate this college and my life.

Sorry, Mom and Dad, I love you both but I had to do this. Sheffali

The police found this suicide note from her room during their investigation. Sourav Prabhakar was the Chief Investigating Officer. He called up her friends, with whom she used to hang out and the faculty members. He asked everyone to assemble in the college auditorium. At times, the police would call some students as the investigation in the case progressed. I was one of them.

‘Hello! Do I know you? Your name sounds familiar,’ Sourav sir asked me when he saw me for the first time.

‘Yes, sir. I know you. Maybe you do not remember me,’ I said.

‘Ok. But I do not seem to recall having met you,’ he narrowed his eyes as if trying hard to recall.

‘I am son of Kapil Bakshi, your father’s best friend.’

He thought for a while and understood the connection. ‘Oh, yes! I remember now. You are Yohan Bakshi. Am I right?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Good. Was Sheffali known to you?’ he asked me. ‘Yes, sir, I knew her.’

‘Okay. Come along.’

Sourav interviewed and questioned those friends of Sheffali first with who she usually used to hang out. When my turn came, I told him about the incident on the day the four of us have noticed her crying in the canteen. I narrated the incident.

Sheffali’s friend, Abhay, told about the faculty who used to call her almost daily after the classes were over, for one reason or the other. The names of Brijesh Khanna and Harshal Kansal came up. The Investigation Officer (IO) asked if they were in the auditorium. They were not there. The IO could not locate them. The college authorities suspended them because of their irregularity in attendance.

The police registered the case under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment to suicide) on a complaint by Sheffali’s father, Rajan Chhabra. Warrants were issued for their arrest.

The police were keen to solve the case as the earliest. As the investigations progressed, several articles were published in the newspapers. The social media was also abuzz with all sorts of opinions. There were stories running on the blogging websites, F******k, Twitter and other social networking sites.

Candle light marches were organized in several cities. Sheffali’s death has caught the imagination of the student community and they demanded justice for her. Rallies were organised in the colleges. The students marched in groups to the police headquarters and submitted memoranda. They demanded justice for Sheffali. Other issues were also getting connected with Sheffali’s death. Issues like eve-teasing, dowry, misogyny, feminism, harassment of women at work place or at home, child trafficking, women’s education and many more such issues were gaining traction. All these issues came under the general umbrella topic of women empowerment.

We were clearly motivated to seek justice.

It’s not all about Sheffali. It is about the victimisation of women in our society. They are beaten, sold, raped, over looked, branded as weak gender, and mistreated in hundred other ways. All like-minded people must take up their cause and fight for them. Today it happened to Sheffali Chhabra, tomorrow some other girl would become a victim.

India is a country where we worship women as goddesses, yet we burn them for dowry and kill them when they are still in the womb.

We tell our daughters to dress properly, but we never tell our sons to behave decently and give due respect.

If a girl commits suicide due to harassment she could not bear, people say, ‘She was mad. She should have told her parents about this.’ People are unable to feel the agony of the young girl and the mental suffering she was going through from her tormentors on daily basis.

‘Harassed’ by two teachers, Delhi CSE student ends her life. Syndicated News Service

August 23, 2012

A 21-year-old girl pursuing B. Tech (CSE) at National Institute of Technology in Delhi, allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the third floor of the girl’s hostel. In her suicide note, the victim, Sheffali Chhabra, alleged that she was being harassed by the college authorities and that she could not bear the torture anymore.

The police have booked two faculty members, Brijesh Khanna and Harshal Kansal, under section 306 of IPC.

In his complaint, Rajan Chhabra, the father of the deceased, alleged that the two faculty members were biased against his daughter and were telling her time and again to repeat her semester.

Police Investigation were in full force. It was expected that the police would arrest the two accused. The police said they had some leads which they were pursuing.

‘Where is Harshal Kansal?’ sir demanded from the domestic servant. ‘Hum ko nahi pata sahab… Kal raat ko hi voh kahin chale gaye….Bina bataye hi chale gaye,’ she said in the local tongue. She knew nothing.

The police team searched the house but couldn’t get any clue. They then went to the home of the second culprit. They searched his house too and found nothing useful for the investigation to make progress.

Sir investigated other assets to their name. He figured out that Harshal and Brijesh were friends and had political backers. The police sealed their properties.

Sourav sir was looking at some photographs. He noticed something in one photograph. He examined it closely. It was group photo of some teachers. They were batch mates. It was the photograph of a party get-together. Both Harshal and Brijesh were seen in the digital frame. The background of the photograph suggested the party was held at some farmhouse. Sir thought for a while. He recalled he had seen the same photograph at Harshal’s house too.

An idea flashed in his mind. Is it possible the two are hiding in a farmhouse? He asked one of his officers to find out the location of the farmhouse. He returned after thirty minutes.

‘Sir, I have located the farmhouse. It is in Chattarpur,’ he reported to the IO.

‘That is good. Who is the owner?’

‘Sir, MLA Raghu Raj is the owner of this farmhouse,’ he said.

The inspector took some policemen with him in a jeep and headed to Chattarpur. Intelligence informed him that few people were living in the farmhouse. They reached the venue and entered in. Harshal and Brijesh were there. They did not resist. Police arrested them and took them to the police station.

‘Accused behind the bars.’

The headline appeared in different newspapers the following morning. Student joined hands together and announced a candle light march in memory of Sheffali Chhabra.

I broke down into tears when I think of the harassment you suffered in your years at the college. It made your life unbearable. Ultimately, you took your own life to put yourself beyond your tormentors and left this world. Your last note tells us how much you loved life and how hard it was for you to take this horrible decision. How I wish you did not have the mental strength to take this extreme step. You would have been with us. I wish I could bring you back.

I wish you could smile again. I wish we could talk again. I wish we could still hear your voice. I wish I could tell you how much we love you. I wish I could tell you and convince you this is not right. I wish to convince you that you had no right to end your life. I wish you would come back. If these wishes cannot come true, then, I pray to God to burn those, who made you commit suicide, in the fires of hell forever. Above all, I still wish you could come back. We Love You. You will always be missed, Sheffali. Rest in Peace.