Two years after the brutal gang rape of a 23-yearold physiotherapy intern, the families of the victim and the accused are still gathering pieces of their shattered life. But amid the rage and protests that the incident evoked, another man’s story has gone untold.
The owner of the bus in which the woman was raped, Anil Yadav, had to scratch off his family name from over 400 of his busses to save himself and his business from the mob.
“I heard about the incident on TV and never imagined that I will be connected with the case. By evening, our offices were raided and all our buses were impounded. We cooperated with the police at every step of the investigation but despite that people targeted and destroyed our buses,” said Anil Yadav.
He remembers how people from across the city came out protesting vigorously for stricter laws for women’s safety. At the same time, Yadav says he suffered losses to the tune of at least 60 lakh. When his drivers stopped at traffic lights, they were abused for being associated with the transport service.
“My drivers were dragged out of busses and even beaten up only because of the name,” he remembers.
{{/usCountry}}“My drivers were dragged out of busses and even beaten up only because of the name,” he remembers.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav was forced to change the name of an enterprise which his father had built. His buses now run with the name Ganga tours and travels.
“We could not park our buses anywhere because people would vandalise them. Our contracts with schools were terminated and our offices were wrecked. To save further damage we were forced to cover the name ‘Yadav’ on all our busses,” he added, sitting in his new office.
Yadav’s office was also damaged by a group of protesters who blamed him for the rape and the condition of the victim. To avoid similar attacks he chose to stop operations for a few weeks.
All his busses have adopted the new name. The new busses are equipped with a GPS tracking system and the drivers are only appointed after a thorough verification.