Patna, Jan. 12: The genesis of the January 4 murder of BJP legislator Rajkishore Keshari lies in a letter purportedly written by his killer Rupam Pathak and sent to the chief judicial magistrate of Purnea, in which she narrates the sexual abuse she had to go through for close to three years and how she was being driven to desperation by unhelpful law enforcing authorities.
In the four-page handwritten letter, a copy of which is with The Telegraph, Rupam, 42, accuses Keshari and his personal assistant Bipin Rai of sexual assault and also hints at the callous attitude of the police.
Rupam stabbed to death Keshari, the BJP MLA from Purnea Sadar, on January 4 at the politician’s ancestral home in the district. She is lodged in Purnea jail on murder charges.
Rupam’s letter was sent to the chief judicial magistrate of Purnea before she filed a protest petition in the court on September 16, 2010.
In April last year, Rupam, who runs a school in Purnea, had filed an FIR against Keshari and Rai, accusing them of raping her. But on June 18, she withdrew her statement, saying she had made the allegation at the behest of someone else, whom she did not name.
The flip-flop prompted the police to close the case, a decision against which Rupam filed a protest petition in the court. The next hearing of the case is scheduled for March.
Rupam, in the missive to the magistrate, says her career has been ruined.
“Meri izzat loot kar, mujhe barbad karke, mera muh band karne ke liye road de diya. Meri iksha marji ke khilaf sara kam hota chala gaya. Main akeli kucch nahi kar payi. Daur lagati rahi sabh darwaje. SP, DM, sabka chaprasi dant lagate raha. Aur main barbad-lutkar nyay ki guhar lagane kahan jaun (My modesty was outraged, I was ruined. A road was built to shut my mouth. All this happened against my wishes. I was left alone. I kept running from one place to another. The peons of the SP and the DM rebuked me. I was at a loss whom to approach for justice even after losing my honour),” the letter says.
Rupam’s letter, which is on the record of the Purnea civil court, further claims that if the “incident” — her allegation of sexual assault — was probed properly, it would prove hundred per cent true. “Lekin sach bolne walo ko nyay milta kahan hai?” Rupam says in the letter.
Rupam says her trauma began on April 18, 2007, when she alleges the MLA sexually assaulted her in his ancestral home at Sipahi Tola.
On that day, the letter says, she had gone to see the MLA with photographs of the annual function of her school and a letter with a request to construct an approach road. “Seeing me alone in his house, he (the MLA) dragged me inside his bedroom and outraged my modesty. Bipin Rai, along with one or two unidentified persons, was sitting outside the MLA’s room. I came out of the room silently. I did not disclose the matter to anyone due to fear of social stigma,” the letter says.
Later, Rupam says, Bipin visited her school, adjacent to the MLA’s house, and threatened her with dire consequences if she spoke out. Thereafter, the letter says, Bipin started to exploit her sexually.
“Bipin used to visit my school and raped me. When I complained to the MLA against Bipin’s behaviour, he simply ignored it saying, ‘Bipin aisa ladka nahi hai’. At that moment, I lost my cool and told the MLA, ‘I will kill him. Agar mujhe mila to main uska khun pee jaungi (If I spot him, I will suck his blood),” she says in the letter.
Rupam says she should be hanged if her allegations were proved false. “Mujhe phansi de di jaye. Main usi ke layak hun (I should be hanged. I deserve that),” she said.
