All the while, even as the rape of an Adivasi child galvanized the women’s movement and produced legislative reforms, Mathura herself remained on the sidelines. She is reported to have moved to a different village, remarried and started a family. All those years ago, Mathura did what most other women of her time would not have had the resolve to do for fear of a social backlash, police apathy, judicial delays and a host of other reasons. She filed a rape complaint and followed it through to its logical conclusion. The Supreme Court – famously described at the time as the ‘last resort for the
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