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.

Her village head for instance. His office quickly turned into a media centre, the first stop for those chasing the story. Of course, it also helped that his brother ran the local cable station Abhi Tak. The village, where the majority is Hindu, was slightly miffed that Imrana chose to approach the Darul-ul-uloom at Deoband rather than just take the legal option, but they stood by her. After all, she was their own, they shrugged. It was also our village vs theirs story.

While Imrana’s family refused to speak, her in-laws were only too eager. At the semi-pucca house in Noorbafan Mohallah, two lanes behind the Charthawal police station, her ailing mother-in-law had little strength to speak. But her sister-in-laws put in a good word for their arrested father-in-law.

In Charthawal, Imrana had two sets of neighbours. One who ‘’didn’t really know her’’ and the other who denounced her. Persistence got nothing more than some sociological insights. ‘’Don’t ask me, I am a Tyagi and that woman is a Qureishi — kasai (butcher),’’ said one neighbour, waving at a slightly bewildered passerby. ‘’Imrana’s family is Ansari — julaha (weavers), so how should we know anything about them,’’ she asked triumphantly, pleased with her reasoning.

Immediate neighbours, though, dismissed the rape charge. Said her neighbour Dr Mohammad Hanif Tyagi. ‘’It’s basically a property dispute. She and her husband Noor Ilahi wanted to sell this house but her in-laws didn’t want that. She has framed them. Let the case be tried. If Ali is proved guilty, then punish him.’’

Noor Ilahi, said neighbours, first supported his father, then switched over to his wife. ``He came back here once but didn’t say much. He looked troubled and only said ‘Sirf murda hi janta hai qabar ka haal. (Only the dead know state of the grave.’’

At the Charthawal police station station, the SHO was only too willing to discuss the case. Unaccustomed to such attention, he had learnt quickly to play the gracious host. For visiting journalists he had a ready smile and a ready glass of mango juice topped with bright tutti-frutti and sliced almonds — ordered from across the road. ``I have been posted in many areas with a high crime graph but in all my postings I have never got fame like this. Now when I walk in the market, people point towards me and say there goes the daroga,’’ he said. But his fifteen minutes of fame have long been over.

After a year, Imrana has returned to headlines this week with the conviction of her father-in-law. There are reports of fresh fatwas and also of her difficulties in getting her children admission to schools.

But like before, Imrana’s troubles, much like her, may soon withdraw behind a veil of silence, lost to the world.