Journalism of Courage
It8217;s 6 pm at Shakti Mills. The sun hasnt set yet,though inside the compound shadows are lengthening. A week ago,around this time,a woman had walked out of here bearing a horror story of gangrape and threats,tailed by her assaulters who told her not to tell anyone what just happened.
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PHOTOS: Deserted Shakti Mills open for crime again?
In the 25,067 sq m expanse of the mill,which shut down 24 years ago,those debates sound hollow. For all its new-found notoriety,Shakti Mills had police cover for exactly one week. On Thursday morning,the Mumbai police removed the solitary van it had stationed there.
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On Friday,August 30,the two entry points to the mill compound are again open to anyone wanting to go in,and those living in and around say they are tired of protecting what cant be protected.
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Almost immediately after the closure in 1989,locals had stripped the premises of valuable metal and wood parts,everything that the owners had left behind. Every day,trucks filled with iron parts and wooden structure drove out. By 1994,scavengers had taken everything there was to take8230; There was nothing left. Im not even talking about tempos. Entire trucks pulled out each evening filled to the brim, recalls Shabbir Khan.
The 35-year-old taxi driver was raised and continues to live in Dhobi Ghata vast expanse of slums that abuts Mahalaxmi Station and stretches across to Jacob Circle and Arthur Road Jail.
Once everything of value had been removed,he says,the
vegetation set in.
In the 24 years since then,the mills roof has completely disappeared. The boundary wall near the station is in different stages of disrepair. Where the main entrance used to be,in a lane,an imposing wall still stands. A garage has sprung up on land encroaching into the wall,as have two tea stalls and a shanty. Their garbage spills out into the compound.
Importantly,walking inside poses no problem.
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Locals,however,maintain that the lane is safe at every hour. Naina Patankar,who works at a tea stall outside the mill,says she feels safe even when she winds up work at 11 pm. Our stall opens at 7 am and shuts around midnight. Even after that,a lot of taxis remain parked here all night while people passing from Lower Parel to Mahalaxmi use this lane, she says.
Patankar also claims: We make sure no one enters the mill. Sure,boys from Dhobi Ghat go inside to play each Sunday,but we know they are not up to anything else.
Appearing to be hinting at the August 22 gangrape,the 30-year-old adds: In the past,when photographers staged shoots,they never entered alone and sought our help to find their way inside.
However,others are not so sure. Ragpicker Raju Deshmukh says that he does not stay in the lane that Patankar is so confident about a minute after sunset. The homeless 28-year old and his four-year-old roam all day scouring for garbage. The lane teems with thieves after dark. There have been several instances of theft. Inside the mill,there have also been at least two murders. Both bodies were found dumped inside a well, he claims.
The owner of the South Indian tea stall,who refused to be named,opened his shop after the mill shut down. According to him,The police never really cared about what happened inside the mill in spite of being completely aware. It was up to us. In the first few years that I was here,I always stopped boys from entering the mill. Whenever,there was a murder reported inside,I always helped the police, the 45-year-old says.
Marriage,he adds,made him more cautious. Now that I have a family,I keep away from trouble, he says.
It is the rail-side entrance,from where the photojournalist and her colleague entered,that is the main worry. The Railway Protection Force RPF has begun foot patrols along an unused rail track down which the accused are believed to have walked to the mill. Two slightly bored-looking constables walk from Lower Parel station towards Mahalaxmi on Friday. Both men,natives of Madhya Pradesh,were transferred to Mumbai only 10 days ago. The foot patrols take place 24 hours. We keep an eye out for anyone trying to enter through the breach, says Constable Bhim Singh Fozdar.
However,they have a long stretch to cover,and for lengths of time,the breach in the wall is unguarded. From there it is a short walk to the crime scene,now enclosed in do not cross police tapes that one can walk under. In the corner lies the two-feet slab of concrete where the victim was raped.
Life has returned to its undulating rhythm in Dhobi Ghat too,from where the juvenile accused was arrested. Over the course of the investigation,it has emerged that all the five accused hung around Dhobi Ghat. They would reportedly surface at midnight and proceed to Mahalaxmi Station where they allegedly robbed commuters.
From the Mahalaxmi Bridge,Dhobi Ghat appears an expanse of colourful clothesa picture embedded in the mind of any tourist coming to the city. Down on the street though,the scene is chaotic. A succession of makeshift road-side stalls sell goat meat outside the colonys only landmark,Mahalaxmi Tea Stall. It is here that the accused are said to have gathered before heading to the Mahalaxmi Station.
The street is lined with layers of plastic,dropped along the way by BMC trucks moving garbage from a dumping ground located near the residence of Nilofer Shaikh,29,who lives at the far end of Dhobi Ghat. The movement is unceasing and passersby pay little heed,even sidestepping with practiced ease some animal carcasses.
The pavements are lined with vagrants,the unemployed and the homeless,some of them intoxicated. Five dark entrances,marked as gates,lead into washermen territory. Here too,many lay passed out,some on the debris-strewn floor,others on the soft pile of unwashed clothes,in apparently drug-induced stupor.
The arrests have not stopped local boys from gathering on the street and commenting on every girl that passes by. They still drink out in the open at day time and do drugs in the recesses of the ghat. We are afraid to step out after 4 pm. From evening until early in the morning,the street is hell. They are also known to drag women into the ghat and hit them if they resist. If we call the police,they only disburse them momentarily, says Shaikh.
On Sundays,she says,it is virtually impossible to leave home. The boys seem in a celebratory mood. They play cricket outside my aunts home and swear at the top of their voices. Once,some of them even attempted to force their way inside her home,but neighbours saved her, Shaikh claims.
Shabbir Khan,the taxi driver,says its not safe for outsiders. A couple of months ago,an American woman was walking on the street and taking photographs when a couple of boys came out of nowhere,snatched her bag and camera and vanished. No one came to her assistance. A lot of these tourists do not bother to go to the police because they know they wont see their belongings again,but this woman wasnt one of those. She went straight to the Embassy and told them what happened. Within two hours,the police had caught the thieves and recovered the stolen goods, he says.
There is not a single breach in the wall separating Dhobi Ghat from the Mahalaxmi Station. Dismissing claims that the accused would scale walls to get to the station,and eventually the mill,Khan adds: Why do they need to do that when they can simply walk past a no entry board near the station? There is no policeman stationed.
