Mumbai,January 16 :An Indian doctor based in the US has returned to Mumbai after six years to depose against a hotelier whom she had accused of raping her.
Priyanka (name changed) that she returned despite her responsibilities towards her patients to ensure that others do not suffer like her. “There are so many Indian girls who suffer and cannot talk about their trauma,” the 27-year-old doctor said. “I am a physician; if I don’t speak about this, no one else would.”
Six years ago, Priyanka — then a pre-medical student — was in Mumbai to attend a wedding. A friend introduced her to Goa-based hotelier Sanjay Bhatti. He accompanied her to a party where singles were not allowed. Before going to the party, she kept her bag in his Lokhandwala flat.
She alleged that Bhatti raped and assaulted her in the wee hours of February 7, 2004, when she went to collect her bag from his flat.
“Every time I see a patient who has suffered similarly, it (the incident) comes back to me,” she said.
Recounting the ordeal after the rape, Priyanka said, “For eight months, I hadto crawl out of bed to getmyself up. The physical wounds have healed with time, but the emotional wounds remain.”
The US consulate informed Priyanka last year that she had to depose in court. She reached Mumbai a few days ago. “When I saw him in court, my heart raced. I wanted to choke him the way he had choked me. He haunts me in my dreams. I cannot forget his face.”
While she was deposing in court on Monday, Bhatti — seated in the accused box — interrupted her repeatedly. “When I complained to the court and asked for his bail to be cancelled, he
shut up,” Usha Kiran Makasare, additional public prosecutor, said.
“When he was on top of me, I felt so helpless,” Priyanka told the court on Monday. “I cannot describe the feeling of not being in control.
With rapists, it is never about sex. It is more about overpowering women and getting their way.” Priyanka received psychological counselling before she underwent tests to check for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. The nightmarish experience, she said, changed her as a person.
“Earlier, I would stay in the library till 4 in the morning and walk back home. I was a bold person then.” Bhatti was not arrested even after she filed a complaint. He was arrested only after she got in touch with the US consulate.
Priyanka spoke of dirty toilets in the hospital and how she was medicallyexamined in a room without any door. “It was so painful,” she said.
“Every rickshaw ride, every bump, everystep, was a pain. It waspathetic how narrow-minded people were. The police asked one of the rickshaw drivers if I was a beerbar girl.”