In what could be seen as a huge relief for rape-accused Alok Nath, a sessions court in Mumbai has suggested that writer-filmmaker Vinta Nanda might not be telling the truth. The court order reads, “(Vinta Nanda) remembers the entire incident, but she does not remember the date and month of incident. In view of all these facts, the possibility cannot be ruled out that (Alok Nath) has falsely been roped in the crime.”
Reacting to the court order Vinta Nanda says, “The court has granted Alok Nath Anticipatory Bail, but conditions apply. I respect the order because I trust the process of law. Like all other predators so has Alok Nath denied allegations against him and it was expected that he would do so. In his application for anticipatory bail he has cast aspersions on my character and tried to mislead the court by cooking up stories, which are completely false and untrue.”
Alok Nath
Vinta feels Alok Nath was trying to mislead the court and she was compelled to clarify to the court. “I clarified each point by which Alok Nath and his team tried to mislead the court, through an intervention made by my lawyers but because the proceedings were between the state and Alok Nath, my reply was quoted limitedly in the final order. However I must say here that I am grateful that my reply was accepted and put on record.”
As for the honorable court’s suggestion questioning the rape accusation Vinta says, “Everyone who knows me and who knows Alok Nath personally also knows truth and there is nothing in the world that will change those facts. I may be fighting this battle in court alone but my family, my friends and my industry all know what the truth is. CINTAA has already expelled Alok Nath after having concluded that I am telling the truth, after having heard not just what Alok Nath had done to me but after having heard what he has done with all the other victims of his assaults and such behaviour.”
In her defence Vinta brings up the fact that many other women have come forward with accusations of a sexual nature against Alok Nath. “Can it be that all of us — Sandhya Mridul, Navneet Nishan, Himani Shivpuriji, Deepika Amin and the many other women who have still not gathered the strength to come out publicly with what they have been through because of him — are lying and the one and only Alok Nath is telling the truth? When he was expelled from CINTAA I knew that I was believed and that justice had been done. The #MeToo movement gave me the courage to speak out about what had happened to me. As of now I have limited time as I am busy with my work. My friends and well wishers advice me and I pay heed to them, that I should let the law take its own course. Truth is by my side.
The statements reported as the court order in publications are all part of Alok Nath's appeal for bail.
I think this is the exact thing that women have been trying to fight for ages now, and especially with the MeToo movement: the huge burden of doubt that comes from lapse of memory in a survivor's account.
Research has consistently shown that women tend to not remember “all” details of the crime when they're traumatised. To hold that against the victim and jump to the baffling logic that that is enough proof of a false accusation is a defeating on many levels.
Sandhya Menon
Alok Nath's lawyers have not taken these things into consideration.
They cannot be seen as Justice Oza's statements. Having said this, we must remember that this was said in the context of AN's plea for anticipatory bail. This is not to be seen as a judgement of the case at all.”
Sandhya Menon, journalist and author
—As told to Swati Sharma
