Blogger & Singer
JWB Visits Sister Of Marital Rape Victim Karnika. Her Revelations Are Spine-Chilling!
- IWB Post
- June 20, 2016
“Why don’t you leave him?” I asserted. I knew she was in bad shape, worse than ever. I clutched tightly to the phone, somehow believing that it would make my request appear much stronger.
My eyebrows were creased, I wanted to kill that man, I wanted to hug my sister, I wanted to tell her I was there for her no matter what. We’d make it work. She didn’t have to go through all of this to please that bastard.
No, she didn’t have to go through a Transvaginal Ultrasound to please him.
Karnika responded,“I won’t. I promise you. Maybe, I’ll move to Mumbai, start a new life. I’m putting my foot down.”
Click.
I slept peacefully, starting next morning, everything would be different. Karnika would finally be happy. She’d live a better life away from the monstrous reality.
The next morning, mom called her, “Ginni, what are you taking for lunch today?”
Karnika responded, “Patta Gobhi, ma.”
Mom knew she disliked patta gobhi, and considering the recent dire events, she wanted to do everything to make her daughter happy. Mom quickly prepared gatte ki sabzi for Ginja.
Around 12, mom and I left for her office to pay her a surprise visit.
The lunch was steaming hot, our eyes scanned through the office but couldn’t trace Ginja. I dialed her number and had a strange thought:
“What if this is my last call to Ginja?”
I brushed the thought away. She didn’t answer the phone and my mother started panicking. Her colleagues said that Karnika called in the morning to say that she’d be late.
We rushed to her flat and kept calling her throughout the route. The tiffin box didn’t matter anymore.
I had managed to nudge the thought away, but mom was really scared. In no time, we were at her doorstep, ringing the bell, begging her to open the door, but there was no response.
We’d asked dad to come, and a carpenter was also on his way.
After many efforts, mom and I managed to get in.
My heartbeat stopped. We froze. This couldn’t be true. Our eyes, fixed and unable to gaze at her hanging body at the same time.
Mom almost fainted, and I couldn’t believe this. “No, God can’t do this to us. What have we ever done? Why would this happen? This is not true. Maybe, a horrible nightmare?”
We brought her down but knew it.
We rushed her to the hospital, I knew it wasn’t going to change anything.
Karnika was four years older than Devika. Being the elder sister, she’d boss her around, and Devika would happily obey, after all, it was her Ginja.
In 23 years, they never stayed apart, until the time she got married.
JWB shared the letter Devika wrote to her sister Karnika after she passed away, and visited Devika and her family in Udaipur to stretch out a hand of support.
Marriage meant Dowry
After a glorious, and disguised courtship, Karnika got married to Himanshu on January 25th, 2016. Everything was great, honeymoon pictures were being shared, wishes being scribbled on their Facebook walls, until one day, he told her that they’d move to Porbandar. 
At that time, we didn’t know that Himanshu’s engagement had broken thrice, and so, the fourth time, he was extra cautious.
Himanshu sent Ginja messages like “Send me your location.” He couldn’t stand it when she visited us, and then refused to speak to her for days.
“I’m a Doctor, and your father didn’t give me anything. Do you know what kind of a reputation we hold? And he can’t buy us a flat? What’s the point of marrying you, then?” He would say.
Ginja was taken aback. This wasn’t the guy she had chosen to marry! He was blatantly demanding dowry. Nothing was enough for him. Every time, he wanted more and more.
Unsatisfactory Sexual Performance
Soon, the news that Karnika wasn’t a ‘woman’ enough for Himanshu, began to do rounds in Himanshu’s family. Needless to say, it spread like wildfire.
My sister was that she was too good a person and always thought that she could really make things work.
Ginja kept trying, even on nights when he’d leave her in bruises. He’d hit her, slap her, ask her why she wasn’t able to satisfy him. He’d say, “Your father only pretends to be a wealthy man, because if he really had any money, why wouldn’t he give it to us?”
On some days, he would return drunk after partying with his friends, and rape her. When they’d visit Himanshu’s relatives, they’d say, “Make our little boy happy, Karnika. He’s not satisfied with you.” She had become a joke in the family. Her mother-in-law maintained her silence.
If ever Karnika wore a slightly shiny pair of shoes, Himanshu would abuse her for dressing up.
It was pure emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Every moment, my sister was breaking.
Conversations With The Family
“Come back, Ginja.”
“Come back, Ginni, you don’t have to go through all of this.”
Ginja believed that marriage was the most important relationship in the world, and she wouldn’t give up on it just like that. Every time she shared something with me, I’d tell her to leave everything and come home. But, she was always worried. Worried about how’d I get married if SHE got separated!
What are we teaching our girls? Our upbringing leads our women to represent themselves as ‘sanskaari’. It’s a man’s world, and a woman’s role is only to sacrifice for him, right?
I wish I had gone over to her house, and brought her back. Had I been just a few hours early, maybe she’d be alive today.
Transvaginal Ultrasound
A few days before she committed suicide, Ginja & Himanshu went to Porbandar (where the rest of the family resided). She was tricked into a Transvaginal Ultrasound exam. Her in-laws told her that she’d have to get a general sonography done.
“Refuse it. You don’t have to get any sonography done.” Mom told her over the phone.
After a lot of thinking, Ginja decided that if getting a harmless sonography will make her family happy, she would happily go through it.
A couple of hours later she called me sobbing, “I don’t want to live here anymore. They inserted something inside me. They did a Transvaginal Ultrasound.”
The horrible family inserted an Ultrasonic Probe inside her vagina to check why she wasn’t able to satisfy Himanshu. She screamed, shouted, cried, but nobody cared. The test was extremely painful, and is forbidden to perform without prescription.
Apart from being tortured and humiliated, she was being violated. Himanshu’s dissatisfaction and demands for dowry killed my sister.
Karnika had a heart of gold
No matter what the season, she’d always carry water and biscuits for street dogs. If she ever saw an unwell dog on the street, she’d feed him, stick around till an animal hospital came to its aid. She had a heart of gold.
She only wanted everyone to be happy, and in that finding, she lost herself.
A night before the suicide
She sounded normal, and was in fact, happy. She’d just been told that she’d just got a big raise at work. Ginja was finally seeing a ray of hope. Though, she couldn’t get to terms with what had happened to her.
She spoke to a friend till 2.30 am explaining everything that had happened to her. She felt nothing more than just a body to them.
I’m not angry at Ginja, I’ve accepted and have decided to now respect her decision. No, she wasn’t a coward, what she did, took a lot of courage, and if she thought this was the right thing to do, and especially now, since I can do nothing about it, I just respect her, I hope she’s in a better place, now.
Verdict on the case
The charge sheet has been presented in the court. For now, Himanshu & his father are in the Judicial custody. Their request for bail has also been denied. Very soon, the trial shall begin, too.
Himanshu’s mother, who is a heart patient, has not been taken into custody.
Devika’s message to all the Karnikas out there
Please, don’t lose hope. Get out of it as soon as you can. I know, I lost my Ginja, but no other Ginjas should be lost. Be strong, live your life. Nothing is more important in the world, than you.
Strength for writing the letter to Karnika
I wrote the letter two days after Ginja did it. Something pushed me to do it. I had to do it for her.
I never cried in front of my parents. It would kill them. I just cannot cry. I have to be strong, they need me now, more than ever.
When I sit alone in my room, thinking of Ginja, I feel that she’s holding my hand. Maybe, she’s here? My Ginja.
Sanchit Sethi
Photographer
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Inspite of being ill treated why the girl could not get herself separated. She had a job, she was educated and had a loving sister and parents to fall back on.
She was forced by our society’s thinking that nobody will marry her younger sister if she saperated.
So the main culprit is our Indian society and its criminal values that we teach our girls.
This would never have happened in the western society.
S