Opinion No one killed Jessica,but what about Bina?
On seeing the film based on the murder,one of the witnesses to the original tragedy wonders about the film-makers motives.
I recently went to see the film No One Killed Jessica. I paid my own way in,no invitations. How often does one get the chance to see oneself featured in a film,however unflatteringly? As a witness to the actual drama and much of what came in the decade after,I was most interested.
It was a case in which there was much tampering with witnesses. The case also illustrated the defenceless plight of any witnesses who might dare to stick to the truth. It is also a case with a just ending. Jessica eventually got justice. It is in this regard that I found the film to be quite disappointing,almost a schizophrenic experience. At one extreme,Jessica,Sabrina Lal and Manu Sharma get to keep their names and the film faithfully reproduces some events in minute detail Manus parents visiting the Lals and laying flowers before Jessicas photograph is one example. The Tehelka sting of the Manu Sharma camp is another (though in the film all credit goes to Sabrina,Rani and NDTV,giving Tehelka only a passing few lines of tribute at the very end). At the other extreme,some parts are a total fabrication Rani Mukherjees personage is an invention. So is the prosecutor who constantly shouts objection,objection; it is a word rarely uttered in actual trials.
So far so good.
It is in the treatment of Bina,Malini and I,in the middle ground,where the film goes off the rails,treading the line between fact and malicious fiction.
These three characters are given fictitious names and we soon see why. Bina becomes Mallika,I am Peter. Yet there can be no question in the viewers mind as to who they are in this story. Binas characterisation provides one of the few comic elements in the movie. Anyone who has met Bina must laugh at the simpering,hand-wringing,indecisive,weepy-aunty persona she is given in the film. This is not the Bina we know and love. The films director Rajkumar Gupta would do well to meet her some day.
The film does faithfully show Bina confronting and grappling with the killer,in the opening scenes. It does show me,Peter,chasing off after the killer,in the night. All that actually happened. It could have shown that it was in fact Bina who rushed a dying Jessica to a waiting hospital,though others have claimed credit for that.
But the film slides quickly thereafter. There seems no need for the film-maker to write an insipid script for Binas court appearance where she is purported to virtually sink the case through her indecision and whining. No need because the court transcript is available; Bina,Malini and I all stuck to our original police statements during grueling court testimony. All three of us separately identified Manu. All three of us went over and touched him so that there could be no question of who we were identifying. For good measure,Bina also identified Vikas Yadav .. an intimidating experience,for a woman. No,I did not rush over to strangle Manu as shown in the film (I suppose they needed a borderline psychopath for further comic relief. I was relieved that I was shown choking the right guy). In fact,I merely walked over to the lineup,looked Manu in the eyes and placed my right hand on his left shoulder to identify him. At what point does a fiction become a lie and a slander?
The film conveniently ends with the appeal to the Delhi high court in 2006. They thus avoid Binas pivotal role in that case. The true triumph of this story is not the admission of the appeal to the high court,as shown in the film. The triumph is the reversal by the honourable high court of the trial courts acquittal (later ratified by the Supreme Court) … and the sentencing of Manu to life imprisonment. The honourable high court remarked that Bina Ramani had shown courage,had shown guts and heroism in confronting the killer. She was not only a key witness,she was the star witness in the case,they said. The fact is,had Bina dithered or lied as depicted in the movie,Manu Sharma would be a free man today,and not serving a life sentence.
Malini and I received honourable mention by the court; It was repeatedly pointed out that all three of us had always stood up and supported the prosecution case. They further said to the police team which had been set up to re-investigate the case: You have been harassing your own star witness. Stop it! And it stopped.
Today,in an historic judicial event,some 32 witnesses are being called to account by the court for perjuring themselves. We are not among those. In the decade following the murder,we have truly learnt what it is to be an honest witness in India and have grown to
understand why so very few stand their ground. Far from protecting us,for a decade the authorities sought to destroy us with all the might and fury which those with power can unleash.
Ultimately those powers were not totally successful in their trumped-up machinations: deportation; cancelling of licences; physical threats; a tax raid; attempt at demolition; sealing of premises; harassment and eviction of our tenants; unrelenting media vilification; currency violation; international lookout list; physical destruction of my passport (using rats); total audits; breaking into our house without a search warrant; seizure of files and computers; retention by police of key personal documents; accusations of destruction of evidence; a life of lawyers and accountants; the prospect of vengeance; Binas arrest by a discredited police team for forgery and cheating. And now comes this film,which has obviously set out to do us further harm under the flimsy guise of being
fiction. Too many viewers are taking this rendition to be the truth,not having read or having forgotten the fine print. One can only wonder what the films motive is in fomenting this slander against us,beyond the obvious malice and greed.
We have never asked for recognition. Compensation for damages is not part of our thinking. We never asked for witness protection,nor do we ask for it now. But we would ask not to be insulted publicly and not to be slandered. I believe weve taken more than our share as the price for a clear conscience.
One unsettling postscript to all this is that Bina is now receiving hate mail,no doubt generated by her unfair portrayal in this film. Some of it is so grotesque and unsettling as to inspire grave concern. Obviously some demented males are being stirred to obscenity and violent words. Should matters become truly unhinged,in this unhinged world,perhaps it will provide the film-maker with a theme for a future fiction.
The writer is a Delhi- and Canada-based painter
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