The pit, partially shaded by babool trees and on the edge of a cotton farm, is lined with saris and other women’s clothes, empty wrappers of potato wafers, snacks and biscuits, broken bangles, and tin sheets stripped from cans of edible oil and sticks which were used to cover the trench. Some distance away, visible from the pit, is a clearing in the fields, strewn with polythene bags of the kind used to pack illegal country liquor, and more clothes, as well as firewood, a blackened oil tin that may have been used to heat water, a toothbrush, and a toothpaste. It was in this pit — around 5 ft deep, 7 ft long and 4 ft wide — in a village in Morbi district’s Wankaner taluka that a 15-year-old was kept confined for more than a month. If she stood up and craned her neck, she could see the clearing where she was taken to and allegedly raped most nights. Eight people have been arrested since the girl was rescued, including the 18-year-old accused of raping her and his father and other relatives. Last month, she underwent an abortion. On December 29, the girl’s family left their home and are now living by the roadside, claiming threats from the accused. The two families are neighbours and distant relatives from the same community, Devipujaks, who are mostly landless labourers. The girl’s family is better off of the two. Watch What Else Is Making News In their defence, the accused’s family is calling it an affair gone wrong. In her statement, the girl has told police, “Naresh forced himself on me inside the pit the same night that I was kidnapped. Later, he would pull me out of the pit at night, rape me and push me back in the pit before daybreak. He would tie my hands and legs, gag me and threaten me with a knife, asking me not to yell or to try escape.” Before leaving, he would allegedly cover the pit with the tin sheets, leaving just a small gap for her to breathe. The eldest among six siblings, the girl has studied till Class VII and would help her parents till their 12-bigha land. Her mother says she dropped out since there weren’t many girls in her class. The girl says she had gone out of her home to relieve herself late on the night of November 10 when Naresh kidnapped her. She told police that eight men pushed her into a rickshaw, took her to the isolated farm taken on lease by Naresh’s family, around 2 km away, and shoved her in the trench. Naresh’s father, who usually drives a rickshaw, had taken the field on an annual lease of Rs 5,000 and planted cotton. The land belonging to the girl’s family is located close by. They searched for her for five days before registering a police complaint on November 25. A dupatta finally gave away the pit. “Naresh’s younger brother Pavlo spotted it in the field and told his father Jayanti it was mine. He knew I was missing. Naresh and Jayanti feared that being a child, Pavlo would spread the word. Therefore, they had no option but to inform my family that I was in their field,” says the girl, her voice cracking. The date was December 13 — 34 days after she went missing — remembers her grandfather. Naresh was booked for kidnapping, rape, illegal confinement and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as the victim is a minor. Police also arrested his elder brother Haresh, 20, father Jayanti, 45, uncles Chatur and Devkaran, and three other relatives, Avcharan, Chana and Kishor, after the girl said they had helped Naresh kidnap her. The clothes the girl was wearing on the day of her kidnapping were among the items seized from the pit. After a medical examination showed she was pregnant, the POCSO court allowed an abortion. Police have taken samples of the foetus and sent them for DNA tests. The grandfather says that due to the long confinement, the girl has suffered physically and mentally. “When we rescued her, her eyes had sunk in. She was so gaunt. She can’t sleep well even now, she is afraid still,” he says. The grandmother accuses the 18-year-old’s family of being bootleggers prone to violence, and says they threatened to abduct two more girls of the family following the police case. “We are terrified to go back to our village,” she says. The family has handed over their land to a fellow villager to till, and has written to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani seeking aid. While police took nine more people into preventive custody following the girl’s family’s complaint of threats, they are out on bail. Morbi SP Jaypalsinh Rathore says they are ready to offer all help. “There is a witness protection system. If the girl’s family approaches us, we shall provide them protection. But we are hearing about threats to them through the media.” In his statement to police, Naresh has said he and the girl were involved in an affair for three years. “On the night of the incident, she told me on the phone that she would die if I did not elope with her. I agreed.” The 18-year-old, who was taking computer lessons in Rajkot after failing in his Class XII examinations, claims he had bought her a phone and it was through this that they stayed in touch. While the girl’s family denies this, and police say they have not recovered any such phone, Naresh’s mother Radha shows a mobile with 2G connection, claiming it was the phone her son had given the girl. Radha says he confessed to her about the affair and gave the phone before his arrest. “The girl was besotted with my son and that is why he failed his Class XII exam last year. There is a bagful of love letters she wrote to my son,” Radha says, showing a smart phone reportedly belonging to her son with photos of the two. She also questions the girl’s claim that she had gone out of her home to relieve herself when she was kidnapped. “There is a toilet at her home. Why did she go out at night?” The toilet is located adjacent to the girl’s house, and can only be accessed from outside. Naresh’s sister Neeta claims the girl’s family was aware of their “affair”. “The younger sister delivered her love letters to Naresh. Her aunt knew about the phone calls between them,” she says. Radha adds that they too fear reprisal from the girl’s side as all the men in the family are now behind bars. However, she admits that none of it absolves Naresh’s “crime”, and says they had no idea about it. “For a month, he kept her in the trench and we all were in the dark.” “Naresh would spend the day at home and leave for our field in the evening, saying he would guard the crop against nilgai at night. Since we were all busy with the wedding of my elder son Haresh, nobody went to the field for weeks. His father went there two days after the wedding and found the girl there. Immediately, he called up her grandfather,” Radha says.
