Shades Of Grey

With the verdict in the Unnao rape case on the horizon, people in Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s village are split on his alleged role in the crime

- Puja Awasthi

THE TRUTH LIVES somewhere in the 65 steps between two homes in Makhi—a small village with a big taint. One is the home of the young woman who has accused five-time MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar of rape and, subsequently, of orchestrating an accident that killed two of her aunts. Sengar’s ancestral home is right across his accuser’s home.

As a court in Delhi prepares to give its verdict in the cases against Sengar, the residents of Makhi, in Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh, are reticent. In the days following the accident on July 28 (after which the case was moved out of the state), there was a rush by the media and by those it gave space to, to be seen on the side of the survivor. Now that distinction between black and white has melted into a complex grey.

In Makhi, a mixed-population village, there are numerous conspiracy theories—both for and against the survivor. Ram Ratan Singh, an elderly resident, echoes the sentiments of many others when he tells THE WEEK, “Mahesh Singh (the survivor’s uncle) had planned Sengar’s ruin for one whole year, spreading all kinds of lies against him. I remember a poster that depicted Sengar as Ravan. The families were close once. Who is to say how they fell apart so viciously. Political ambition can be murky.” This is a reference to the survivor’s father and uncles being Sengar’s henchmen at one time, till they developed political hopes of their own.