Silence Has Secrets

‘Will you marry a rape survivor?’

When this question was asked in a class at IIT Murshidabad, only to ignite a constructive discussion amongst students, no one imagined it would open a catacomb of long-buried secrets and lead to unimaginably dark crimes.

The female students eagerly looked at their male counterparts for a response. The class topper, Safin, bravely answered that he would. Akash, scared that he’d be made fun of, quietly wrote on the bench, ‘Will girls marry a male rape survivor?’ Ranjan, the class’s back-bencher, seeing this, insulted Akash and even invited girls to rape him. It was all a joke for this quintessential trouble-maker, until next morning, when he was found naked, raped and brutally injured on the IIT-M campus.

The web of suspects sprawl wide—it could have been Smita, a vociferous feminist, Fatima whose feelings for Akash could have motivated her to take revenge on his behalf, or Akash himself, who was mercilessly mocked by Ranjan in front of the whole class. Or maybe, there’s another unsuspected perpetrator, whose silence—and act of violence—has spoken way louder than words.