Suzette Jordan was gang raped on February 5, 2012 by five men whom she had befriended her at a pub on Park Street, an upscale area in Kolkata. Then, she was gang raped all over again by police, politicians, lawyers and society at large. They thought her complaint had little merit as she was a divorced, single mother of two who liked to party at pubs, who enjoyed her drinks and cigarettes. Fortunately, the judiciary didn’t mix up lifestyle and culture in delivering its verdict this once. On Thursday noon, the City Sessions Court of Calcutta pronounced all five accused in the case guilty. The convicts- Nishad Khan, Sumit Bajaj and Nasir Khan are in jail while two others, Ali and Nasir's brother Kadir Khan are still at large. The quantum of punishment will be announced on Friday.
At a function in Goa in November 2013, Suzette had opened up to a packed, live audience for the first time and had recalled the night of the crime when she met the convict and his friends at a pub. He offered to drop her home. Five men repeatedly raped her in that car and threw her out around dawn.
Her voice had trailed off when she had recalled that her daughter had cleaned her up that night. She laughed as she recounted the assassination of her character. She said it was ridiculous that people discounted the crime altogether just because she was partying alone or had trusted someone to drop her home. She had also talked of little miracles, like the taxi driver who reached her home after the assault. “Where they threw me out, it is usually a very isolated spot. You never get a taxi there. But that night, there was a cab right there. He just saw me and took me in, no questions.” It took Suzanne four days to file a police complaint. She followed up on her fight till she died on March 13, 2015 of complications caused by meningitis and encephalitits. She was 40.
Harish Iyer is an outspoken LGBT activist based in Mumbai and Suzette’s dear friend. “At some point, she seemed to be getting bogged down by the attention. Some people kept her on a pedestal as a women’s activist, most judged her. She just wanted to be. She joked that she was no god mother. At times, she would fear for her life,” Harish said. The five convicts have been charged with criminal intimidation. When Suzette died, their families reportedly celebrated by distributing sweets.
Suzette was humiliated in court. The underwear she was wearing on the night of the assault was flung up on the end of a stick and displayed in a courtroom for verification. She was labeled a woman of loose character with irresponsible tendencies. Mamta Banerjee had reportedly rubbished her claim as a “manufactured story” to malign her party. Another Trinamool leader, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar had insinuated that it was a deal gone wrong. Damayanti Sen - a senior police officer known for her grit and no-nonsense attitude in Kolkata journalistic circles - established that Suzette was gang raped and was suddenly transferred.
Suzette Jordan’s case had errie similarilities to the Bijal Joshi gang-rape in Ahmedabad on December 31, 2003. Bijal was 24 when she was raped by her boyfriend Sajjal Jain, son of an influential Delhi businessman and his four friends. When Bijal went to file a first information report (FIR) at the police station, she was ridiculed and the complaint was not registered. Media coverage was negative. Bijal’s identity was thinly veiled. On January 7, Bijal killed herself. In her suicide note, she said she could not withstand the humiliation and stigma.
Suzette was determined not just to live, but to thrive. She refused to wear the victim tag and insisted that people call her a ‘rape survivor’ instead. She was the first person to identify herself openly as a raped woman. Another gruesome gang rape and murder of a 20-year-old college student in Kamduni village about 20 km from Kolkata in June 2013, sparked Suzette’s decision. At a protest rally, she said, “I am Suzette Jordan and I was raped.”
This assertion completely changed the course of her fight. The number of judgmental naysayers increased, but so did the number of supporters who till then had no way to reach out to her. While this is only the first battle won as the convicts are sure to appeal in a higher court, this verdict infuses little more hope in the changing scheme of gender rights, equality and expression where women stop needing a character certificate to seek justice.
The Jordan family was prepared to fight it out and on Thursday morning, before the verdict, Nicqui Jordan, Suzette’s sister had said, “We have waited for three years and ten months (sic) and we will wait. We will appeal immediately if the verdict is not in our favour.” After the verdict, a jubilant Nicqui simply said, “She was a winner, she had to win.”
