The village elders insisted on the promise to question him in presence of village elders without use of any violence in return for their producing him for investigation. The Police party chief could not accept he conditional approach. After thorough search of every household that ended in frustration, the chief ordered caning of five elders for withholding the vital information. The punishment was usual routine for the state police against citizens who play hide and seek game with the law enforcement agency.

On Makarsankranti day means on January 14 1980 evening 12 village elders went to Mirzapur to lodge their protest. It was bold and rather unusual move by villagers. Most would have overlooked it as minor skirmish but educated villagers did not want to let sleeping the sleeping dog. Their unusual protest invited the media attention. Most of prominent dailies had their representatives to reach them. The village elders described with tears rolling down how the police party and committed heinous crime of raping most village women from 13 years onwards.

The politicians were rejoicing as Indira Gandhi had made the dramatic return to power corridors on the same day. But for media particularly Hindi papers in Uttar Pradesh, the event was the first news item in the war between two opponents the ok Dal government in the state headed by Banarasi Das as the chief minister and the Congress government led by Indira Gandhi. The political war between two was inevitable. This item became explosive to bash the state government as the police party was of the state law enforcement agency under command of the state government.

All papers had displayed the news on the front page to tempt media men of prominent media journals to pick it up and play up as every media soul could sense the explosive blast material inside the womb of the story. It was apparent no serious journal man or woman felt need for verification of facts with the visit and confirmation. The tearful narration by villagers was enough.

Immediately after the swearing in as the Prime Minister, the fourth time since 1966, Indira Gandhi flew to Mirzapur, visited Narainpur, spoke to village elders only as women did not put up their presence even for a woman Prime Minister, next day she addressed the media to condemned the state government for not severely punishing the guilty police men of such a crime of mass rape of all village girls and women.

But she announced no financial relief to the villagers as she believed it to be for the state to provide the relief as the crime was by the state police. The state police stoutly denied of incident by pointing out the impossibility of rape of 100 women in matters of an hour. The log books suggested the police van had returned in two hours that included 30 kms drive to village and backwards. So the police party was out o9f village in less than an hour in the village. Village elders were expecting the relief assistance from both to the tune of Rs. five lakh for each family. The political clash left them without even a single rupee.

But the woes of young girls and growing young were miseries. For next eight years no girl or boy of the village could find a soul mate. Who would marry a raped girl? The Prime Minister of India had verified by her visit to tell the world every grill and woman of the village was raped. No family wanted to allow their daughter to go such unsafe village by marrying to a boy of the village. Even others from Narainpur living in other locations for two decades faced similar problems. But rest of the world remained unaware of this human tragedy.

Even more tragic was neither girls nor boys could share their pain with other to make them comprehend the agony of eight years to be in their bed alone. It could not be media event. Only sudden end to life may have drawn the media attention but not one or two deaths. May be twenty ending their life in dramatic fashion would have got them a paragraph long item in national media but tucked away inside. No one dared to suggest as the most were unaware of the circuiting pain of it.

Mrs. Diwakar originally Lata Bhave of Amravati had accompanied her IAS husband on visit to Mirzapur. She had vague memories of the events then reported. The vague memories made her to visit Narainpur while her husband was engaged in his official work. Lata Bhave was also writing on regular basis for the prominent Marathi monthly Street. Her talks with unmarried three girls of AGE 25 years shocked her. The girls confessed that they were not victims of rape by police men in the party but they were felled victim to the party politics to be condemned as raped. For the first time Lata understood why most middle class families hide the fact of dishonor within the family.

Lata rushed to my office on her return and confided in me what she had learnt, I pointed out these girls were not victims originally of political games but of the machinations by their elders. Even then we did not fathom the real root of the agony of hundred girls. We visited the village and were able to talk to two surviving elders of five then. Both revealed the entire scheme of unjustly accusing the police party in a hope of extracting at least Rs. five lakh for each family. But they failed and three old of originators succumbed to pain of their failure. To my horror two survivors were not aware of agony of hundred young girls due to their greed. Only after great difficulty we could induce media proprietors of Uttar Pradesh to publish our articles to explain what had actually happened. Within three months Lata and I were surprised with three weddings invitations. Three twenty years old girls were getting married in Narainpur. I thought my best award was written in their invitation card in 1981.