A message from Narges

Today, September 29th, I was summoned to Rayagada court for the 3rd hearing in the manslaughter case against me. I walked into the room where the hearing was about to start and was immediately told to remove myself from the chair I was sat on and to step into a 1meter by half meter space, surrounded by wooden planks with a paper saying 'Accused Party' taped on it. Humiliation, Fear and numbness is the only way I can explain how I felt... For 3 hrs I stood inside these wooden planks alongside my colleegue, occasionally looking at each other and reassuring one another that these times will pass... The mother of the boy who drowned spoke today and for 3 hrs I had to watch her accuse me over and over again of forcibly taking her child from her during the picnic and throwing him in the river. She said her son was a child living at my orphanage... A child who has a mother and father living at my orphanage? So his death is my fault. Half of the things I was hearing didnt make any sense but there is nothing I can do about it. The parents of the child need me pay for his death. Literally. She made regular slip ups and nothing that she was saying today correlated with what she had said in her first statement on the day of the incident (Nov 3rd 2014), nor on her second statement to police 1 month after the incident.. You may think that this is good news for me, but what I need you to understand is that here, in this tiny town, nothing is ever Black and White. Especially when you have a group of powerful people desperately seeking revenge on you. For 3hrs I watched while people walked in and out of this room, stray dogs wondering everywhere among the chairs, lawyers on their phones and slipping notes and giggling to one another as if they were 5 years old. I felt like I was in some sort of horror/comedy. Just unexplainable amounts of disgust, disbelief and just so much humiliation. One after the other, people came into the room staring at me, gawking for minutes on end as if I was this new and rare foriegn animal captured at a zoo. I felt lower than an animal. I ask for a fair trial. I ask to be treated innocent until proven guilty. This is all I ask for. I will not pay or settle out of court. I wont do it. I wont because im innocent. If you are reading this then you are one of the 813 people who have shown me that I am not alone here in Odisha. I treasure each and every one of you and knowing that there are others with me while I fight to clear my name, has done so much to boost my moral in what has been nothing but 2 years of hell. Thank you for showing me that I do not have to fight this alone and in silence. I ask you to please, share my story with those you love. Please share my story with those who understand that seeking justice in a foreign land alone, is impossible. I need you to please share my petition and add your voice to mine. Thank you. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct 7th