‘Drink your tea please—what happened last night?’ the ASI asks gently.

‘Arre sir, she beat him with a stick and—’ Tokas says pointing at Mini.

‘Tokas please,’ the ASI says—he raises his hand for silence, ‘Thank you for your input but I think I can manage—why don’t you go and move those cows from the courtyard?’

Tokas’s shocked expression is worth gold and I have an insane desire to laugh, but I don’t. I don’t want anything to spoil whatever little chances Mini might have, I don’t want her arrested. The ASI gestures for Mini to continue.

‘I am expecting my fourth baby—he wants me to abort it because he’s sure this one will also be a girl,’ Mini says softly and looks down into her cup.

‘I refused and said where there are three, there can be a fourth. I’ll love her too. He was already drunk. He started beating me and trying to—trying to kick me in the stomach. The younger girls were cowering and crying. Simmi tried to talk him out of it, he slapped her.

‘Then he said he had to get rid of one daughter if another one was on her way. He dragged Simmi outside—the jhuggi landlord was already standing there. Simmi’s papa had made a deal. He was going to marry Simmi off to the man—to … to get the jhuggi written in his name. But—but he wasn’t even going to wait for a wedding—he was just going to give my daughter to him to … to bed. He wouldn’t listen, he kept dragging Simmi. So I picked up his lathi and I hit him. And once I started, I could not stop, didi. I just hit him and hit him and hit him and—I couldn’t let him touch my children, didi.’ Mini cries quiet tears, just like her daughter.

‘Did you say she is your maid, madam?’ the ASI suddenly asks me.

‘Yes officer, she’s my maid and she’s a good woman, she—’

‘Please answer only what I ask madam,’ the ASI tells me sternly and I feel a nervous flutter in my tummy.

‘Is she a violent person, madam?’

‘No.’

‘Has she ever stolen from you?’

‘No.’

‘Do you know if there are any other criminal records against her, madam?’

‘She is not a criminal—er, no,’ I say.

‘So madam, will you vouch for this woman?’

‘What do you mean, Officer?’ I ask.

‘Can you guarantee me—in writing—that this woman here is a good woman? That this is the first time something like this incident has happened? That something similar won’t happen again?’ the ASI glances at Mini when he says that.

‘I can guarantee it’s never happened before, Officer … But if her children are threatened again …’ I say hesitantly, and hope I haven’t landed Mini in jail.

‘In that case madam—’