'Victim's family in worse condition': Patrick Graham, Tanushree Pandey on revisiting Hathras horror in Hathras 16 Days

THe 2020 Hathras caseful shook the rural area and triggered outrage crosswise republic of india. Sextuplet years later, ZEE5 documentary Hathras 16 Days revisits the crime, the investigation, and the continuing trauma faced by the victim’s family. Directed by Patrick Graham and featuring journalist Tanushree Pandey, who covered the case extensively on the ground, the documentary explores how caste, patriarchy and fear continue to shape the lives of those left behind.In a conversation with Hindustan Times, Patrick and Tanushree spoke about revisiting Hathras, the disturbing mindset they encountered during filming, the trolling Tanushree faced, and why the victim’s family still feels trapped in trauma even after six years.The 2020 Hathras gang rape and murder case was one of the most shocking crimes reported in India in 2020. A 19-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly assaulted by four upper-caste men in September 2020. She suffered severe spinal injuries and later died at a Delhi hospital after battling for her life for two weeks.The investigation was transferred to the CBI. In 2023, a special court in Uttar Pradesh acquitted three of the accused due to lack of evidence, while one accused, Sandeep, was convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and offences under the SC/ST Act. However, all four accused were acquitted of rape charges.Here are the excerpts from the interview Q: A lot of crimes briefly grip the nation and are then forgotten. What made you feel Hathras was a case that needed revisiting six years later?Patrick Graham: “I remember the Hathras case during COVID, and the story stayed with me even then. So when DocuBay approached me in 2024 wanting to investigate the story, it immediately appealed to me. These kinds of crimes are still happening in the country even today. We may focus on one example for some time, but the issue itself hasn’t gone away. It still requires attention in India.” Patrick revealed that when he joined the project, Tanushree was already involved in the research process.Q: Six years later, when you revisited the family, what had changed the most emotionally, financially or psychologically?Tanushree Pandey: They are in a worse condition now. Things have changed, but not for the better. Financially, they are struggling. They did receive compensation from the UP government, but we are in 2026 now, and inflation is rising. We are talking about a very poor family. What struck me most was that the trauma is now travelling to the next generation. The victim’s nieces, girls studying in Classes 3 and 4, are unable to even get admission in schools properly. When the family approached a government school, the principal asked them to sign a document saying that if anything happened to the girls, the family would be responsible because the accused’s children also studied there. One generation has already lived through trauma, but the girls growing up in that family are inheriting the same trauma. They don’t even fully understand crimes like rape or sexual assault, yet they are growing up under that shadow." She added, "That is something that stayed with us. We went to the family. I kept visiting them, but when we reached the village, we thought they might have moved on a little in six years, but still, they have too many problems. The crime that happened six years ago hasn't left them. The girls in their family don't even know the gravity of crimes like sexual assault, rape, and murder, but they are growing up with the same trauma. That's extremely unfortunate, but it's the reality."Q: Tanushree, you also faced intense trolling while covering the case. What was that period like for you personally?“I speak very freely and honestly, and that's why at one point I said my career was over. I wasn’t worried about myself as much as I was worried about my family. These are scary times. People are extremely aggressive and angry. There is no room for disagreement anymore. The moment you don’t agree with someone’s point of view, they feel justified in attacking you," Tanushree saidShe added, "That was the first time I faced such organised trolling and attacks from different IT cells and groups. I was terrified. I wondered if I would be arrested or jailed. I kept thinking, how will I earn money if this is over? I always wanted to become a journalist because I believed journalism meant exposing truth and questioning power. But when I did exactly that, I was punished for it, attacked and trolled. That really shook me. And then I realised — if someone like me, who still had support and visibility, could feel so frightened, imagine what women in rural India go through when they try to speak up. I can’t even begin to imagine what that girl must have gone through in her final moments.”Q: How difficult was it to listen to the testimonies of the accused’s father and advocate, especially when they denied rape and hinted at consent?In the documentary, the accused’s father and lawyer deny rape and imply that whatever happened took place with the victim’s consent. Both Patrick and Tanushree admitted the statements left them stunned.Patrick Graham: “It's very much a reminder that there are many many people within this country who believe this stuff that we have shot. I don't even know how small the minority is, but quite honestly, when you hear certain ideas spoken out loud about like there's no such thing as rape, the girls are asking for it, all these ideas are from medieval times, and they have no place in a functioning modern society."He added, "And the thing is, nowadays, we are hearing conservative men talking about their ideas of women, but if we look at the end result of that culture, that's what you find, which in my opinion is hell on earth. It's such a kind of ignorant perspective and dismissive of women, and so patriarchal. It's a failing culture and society with that kind of stuff. So it was raigebaiting but also extremely telling of a particular subsection of culture within this country and many other countries around the world who believe the same thing.”Tanushree Pandey: “When they said those things, Patrick and I looked at each other in disbelief. We genuinely couldn’t believe what we were hearing in 2025. But this is also very telling about the culture of the great society of our country. We are very proud of this country, and that's why we keep questioning society because we want it to evolve. We are also very shocked about what they were saying, but we also know that the only progressive things we talk about are limited to social media. Outside, if you go on the ground, I am not even talking about villages, please step out in urban places, no one is progressive."She added, "When it comes to women, people have all kinds of rules that don't apply to men. They have all kinds of regulations and restrictions which don't apply to men at all. In fact, I was just talking to someone about the case, which is still in subjudice, the Asaram Bapu case. The lawyer called me and said that he's on bail and the bail has been granted on medical grounds. But he is roaming around very freely and, and the victim, nobody has seen her. She is still in her house, locked up, still facing the consequences of speaking up against such a powerful man. In our country, victims have more restrictions than convicted victims.”Patrick Graham: “I can remember we went outside for a break, and we were like, ' Is he really saying this? We'd better get inside and take more of it. Women, especially Dalit women in those areas, are at the absolute bottom of the social hierarchy. So it's completely unfair and unjustifiable. It's also kind of embarrassing for a modern progressive nation that once put itself forth in the world as a big influential power, to have these kinds of medieval problems around in the country."He added, "I think it's an embarrassment. Everybody should just be like, ' This can't continue.' Because we were in Hathras and apart from the smartphones, it was like you were stepping back in time. You are going to a place where women are not allowed on the streets. There were hardly any women out on the streets, and if they were on the streets, they had their faces covered. It's like stepping back in time. Is it ever going to change? I don't know."Tanushree further recalled, "I remember that we were done with our shoot, and these boys were partying. They booked a banquet hall, and there was not even a single woman. And Patrick asked, 'Is that normal?' I said, ‘This is what it is.’ Women are not allowed to party or have alcohol. If a woman is seen consuming alcohol or smoking, then people will accept that now anything can happen to her; she's asking for it. Patrick told me not to interfere and let people talk about whatever they want to say. We wanted to make this documentary, so that all the men who are watching this documentary and really have a problem with women's safety in this country, this is where the mindset starts from."Patrick added, "It looked so boring. I mean, why would you go to a disco? It's like a sausage party going on in the basement, and the other thing, in the hotel or restaurant that we were staying in, families would come. Husbands would sit on one table, and wives sat on another table. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is crazy.’ Personally, I find the company of only men really boring, but these guys seemed to be happy hanging out with only their guy buddies. I think there are a lot of men out there who don't believe that rape exists, which is just crazy. They think it's an excuse that women make to protect their dignity and shame. I feel like a lot of the men we talked to for this documentary believed that deep down.Q: Has the victim’s family watched the documentary yet? How did they react?Tanushree Pandey: “Yes, they watched it and called me afterwards. The mother was in tears. Watching the documentary meant reliving the trauma all over again. Even during the shoot, all of us became emotional. I cried too. As journalists, we try to stay detached, but this story affected everyone deeply. The family kept remembering their daughter. They spoke about how she used to help around the house and how she was a very good cook. They said the documentary did justice to her story and to her memory."“What stayed with me was that I even received calls from people belonging to dominant caste communities who admitted that these things do happen and said they would at least try to ensure it doesn’t happen again in their area. For me, if even one person reflects after watching the film, then perhaps the documentary has done its job,” she concluded.