Eight years after a horrific gang rape on a national highway in Uttar Pradesh shocked India, a survivor has broken her silence, describing the "savage and inhuman" ordeal her family endured and her resolve to become a judge. The quantum of punishment for five convicted men is expected to be announced on Monday.
A Life Shattered on NH-91
On the night of July 29, 2016, a family's journey from Noida to Shahjahanpur for a funeral turned into a nightmare. Around 1 am on NH-91 near Bulandshahr, their vehicle was intercepted. Seven to eight men emerged from bushes, overpowering the family at gunpoint.
"I heard a loud bang. We paused, thinking something hit our vehicle," the survivor's father recounted. The assailants tied up and assaulted the male members, then dragged the man's wife and his 14-year-old daughter into a nearby field. The father, helpless, could only hear their cries for help echoing into the night. "It still haunts me," he said.
The Long Road of Trauma and Relocation
Now 23 and pursuing a law degree, the young woman spoke from an undisclosed location. "What they did didn't just violate our bodies—it destroyed our lives, peace, our future," she stated, her voice often choking with emotion. The trauma is persistent. "Nights are the worst. I still wake up frightened," she admitted.
To escape recognition and harassment, the family was forced into a nomadic existence. They changed addresses and cities five times in the past decade. "Every time we were identified and vilified," she said, breaking down. "Someone comes to know about our past, and it spreads like fire. People start looking at us with contempt."
Harassers followed her, passed lewd comments, and loitered near their home. The financial toll was equally devastating. Her father, who once owned three taxis, now drives someone else's car on night shifts, earning barely Rs 12,000-15,000 a month. "My education suffered as we had to change places so many times," the survivor added.
Conviction Brings Hope, But Healing is Distant
A Bulandshahr court on Saturday convicted five of the accused. Zuber alias Parvez (35), Mohd Sajid (37), Dharamveer Singh (36), Sunil Kumar (35), and Naresh Kumar (46) were found guilty. The gang's alleged kingpin, Saleem Bawaria (45), died during the trial in 2019. Forensic evidence, including semen traces matching the convicts, was crucial to the conviction, said ADGC Varun Kaushik.
They were convicted under sections for gangrape, dacoity, criminal conspiracy, and the POCSO Act. The verdict has given the family a glimmer of hope. "But it will take a long time—perhaps an eternity—for us to heal," the survivor said.
Her mother, struggling to speak, recalled, "We were a normal family then... My daughter—only a child then—saw everything, she lived through everything."
Despite the immense challenges, the survivor's spirit remains unbroken. She is determined to become a judge to fight for others like her. "I remember every face. They're not human—they are demons," she said of her attackers. "But we did not break. I did not break."
