For frequent travellers on this stretch of western UP, the best news that came out from Muzaffarnagar was when it got a bypass. Now, said relieved travellers, they could finally pass it by. So it came as quite a surprise to the rundown town when last June an endless stream of visitors descended on it.

It all started with a story appearing in the local press about Imrana, 32 then, and a mother of five children who approached the Darul-ul-uloom at Deoband, alleging her father-in-law had raped her. Responding to her complaint, the seminary issued a fatwa annulling her marriage.

It was only later on June 13, that Imrana walked into the Charthawal police station with her brother to lodge a complaint. Her FIR on June 13 said she was raped ‘’seven-eight days ago’’.

The story, picked up by the national press, created much outrage and sent off a wave of well-wishers to Muzaffarnagar. Among those who set up temporary camp was the BJP who took up the issue to illustrate the need for a uniform civil code, the Samajwadi Party who threw its weight behind the clerics, women’s rights activists, the national media and the local cable station, rather ambitiously called Abhi Tak.

But while Imrana was everywhere, no one knew just where she was. For much of the media that descended on her parents’ village of Kukra, it was a futile search. Her angry bothers and sisters-in-law would bar entry. On the day we visited her home, her brother Abid stood guard at the doorway. ‘’She can’t meet anyone. She is going through a lot of mental stress. Every day cameras are thrust at our faces and we are seen on TV. It has become a drama,’’ he grumbled. Only their children, like all children, looked happy and curious to see strangers. Denied the main character, everyone had to make do with peripheral characters. And of those there were many.

... contd.