Beautiful curly hair and a smile that hides all the pain that she’s been through – that’s what we see when we look at Suzette Jordan’s photos. In 2013, Suzette decided that she no longer wanted to be identified as the ‘Park Street rape victim’, because it wasn’t her who should have felt the shame but the perpetrators. So she outed herself and called herself a survivor, and became the first rape victim to voluntarily reveal her identity.
She was raped by 5 men in a moving vehicle on the night of February 5, 2012, as she was returning from a nightclub in Kolkata’s famous Park Street. She lodged a police complaint soon after it, but long before investigations even began, Mamata Banerjee called the gruesome incident a fabricated one. This fueled the fire in the media and got the case wide coverage.
Suzette became an active voice of support and an inspiration for many. But even after that, she was denied entry to a famous restaurant in Kolkata because everyone knew her as the ‘Park Street rape victim’ and could not have her having dinner there.
After 3 years of countless protests and call for justice for her, finally 3 out of the 5 accused have been found guilty of the heinous crime, with 2 still roaming the streets at large. The police officer who pursued the case has been shunted from her post.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t around to see the criminals being punished. She passed away earlier this year, of meningitis and encephalitis.
It took 3 years for justice to be delivered when the case had no loopholes. Some would argue that she got justice sooner considering the lackadaisical attitude of our justice system and the repeated haranguing of her by insensitive politicians. But let’s take a cue and treat victims of rape and violence more sensitively.