Away from the din of the outer world, the 50-year-old Barnala rape ‘victim’ is engrossed in work at her one-room house in Nayagaon. The place is devoid of a proper roof and she works amid clutter, unwary of anybody’s presence.

“I don’t want to say anything. Whatever happened was just an unpleasant experience and I am over it now,” she says.

The proceedings in the high-profile Barnala rape case are in full swing with the final arguments and defence evidence being recorded in the court.

The 50-year-old had accused SAD MLA Gaganjit Singh Barnala of raping her in 2006 while she was employed as a domestic help at his residence. Three months later, she turned hostile in the court claiming she was never raped and had received injuries after falling from her bicycle.

“No one has tried to influence me and I know what I am doing,” she says. “I just don’t care where the court proceedings lead in my case. Three years have passed and I am tired of the public ridicule everywhere I go, especially in my locality,” says the woman. “People pass all sorts of vulgar comments at me, they even abuse. I never reply... I have confined myself to my own world now. It’s a big ugly world out there and I don’t want to be a part of it,” she says.

The widow stays with her mentally challenged sister. Her brother lives in a remote Trimaini village in Kolkata. “I learnt that some close associates of Barnala went to my brother’s village some time ago. They asked about his welfare and checked his identity... that’s all I know,” she adds.

Working as domestic help in four houses in Sectors 15 and 9, the woman is struggling to make ends meet at present. “I barely make Rs 2,000 a month but my employers do not know who I am. I go there on my bicycle as usual,” she adds.