"Under the circumstances, in view of the pending litigation and in the absence of the documents I am unable to take any action and get the formalities completed. I would also request you to kindly direct the jurisdictional police who have filed a case against me and took the documents from me to hand over the same to me so that I could take further action in the matter."

While the case was in the High Court we did not wait idly by for things to happen. We tried to do everything we could to ensure that justice was obtained.

All that had happened had shaken me. What was their meaning? I knew that God had certainly allowed these things to happen to me for a purpose. The 'enemy' had decided to attack me probably from the time my papers had been misplaced in the Bombay Airport fire. That 'enemy' was none other than the devil.

It was the duty of the Airport Police Officer to have immediately sent my registration papers to my place of residence in the country. This had not been done. In the confusion of the fire at Bombay Airport, almost a month later, these papers had been allegedly misplaced. It was almost two years before one of the crucial papers resurfaced at the Registration Office in Bangalore. Where had that paper been for close on two years?

In the meantime there had been a change in the local government of Karnataka. This brought us some hope of more humane changes to my circumstances. Many old faithful government officers either retired or were replaced. There were many changes in the government officers including the local police staff especially among the top officers. It was the local police department that was my prosecutor. There was a change of the two top most police officers in Bangalore, the Commissioner and the Additional Commissioner of Police.

Jacob tried to get an appointment to meet the new Commissioner of Police. Mr. K. C. Mammen, Jacob's cousin, got a letter dated 30 August 1983 from the seniormost police officer of the State of Karnataka, the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Abraham Verghese, who knew the family extremely well, sent to the Commissioner of Police of Bangalore Mr. P. G. Harlankar. The letter was quite explicit with all the relevant facts and most importantly concluded:

"On the face of it, it appears that she has been subjected to harassment, though a technical offence may have been committed by her. Unless there is something adverse against a person like this, it might not be the right thing to treat a foreigner who has married an Indian in this way over a technical irregularity. I would request you to look into this case personally. In this case, there is absolutely no doubt that she is married to an Indian citizen and that she has lived in India for a long period. I would be grateful if you could look into this case personally and see whether anything can be done to stop her suffering and restore her the documents taken from her."

On 20 September 1983 I wrote a letter to the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs which Jacob delivered to the Under Secretary of the Home Ministry, Mr. Pullappa. Again the facts were clearly spelt out. At this stage I made my plea to be saved from further harassment so that I could return to my home country, Finland.

With this continuous barrage of attempts to drum some sense into the persons in power, Jacob finally managed to get an appointment arranged with the second-in-command of the Bangalore police force, the Additional Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chandulal. With great excitement mixed with hope and anxiety I went with Jacob to the meeting.

He was a pleasant man. He listened carefully to the case history narrated by Jacob. He was very sympathetic and told us that they should never have prosecuted me and that it was all wrong. We discussed the matter in a relaxed atmosphere.

He proposed some possible solutions. He suggested that the police department should immediately start the procedures to withdraw the case altogether. He warned us, however, that it was a long process and would take a minimum of six months. After having been harassed for two years, six months sounded trivial to us and we felt relieved. It, however, meant that we would have to do a lot of work ourselves. The withdrawal process had to pass through every government ministry and be accepted and signed by all the authorities concerned and finally it had to pass through the office of the Chief Minister. We left the police headquarters with new hope.

Jacob began to get things moving with renewed vigour. He was fully aware of the Indian bureaucratic system where matters progressed slowly unless one kept pushing them to ensure that they went forward and papers did not end up as pending files in some bureaucrat's 'in-tray'.

The High Court sat to hear our petition on 12 December 1983. It was in the chambers of the Honourable Justice N. D. Venkatesh. Our advocate, Jawad, presented his case as forcefully and clearly as could be expected. The prosecution knowing full well that an injustice had been done at the Lower Court, could not and did not oppose the criminal revision petition in any way.

On 12 December 1983 Judge N. D. Venkatesh wrote in his judgement

"Accordingly, the petition is allowed; the impugned order is set aside; and the learned magistrate is hereby directed to hear the counsel for the petitioner (accused before him) in the matter. After hearing the counsel he may pass appropriate orders. The matter appears to be pending since about three years and the alleged offence is said to have taken place in the month of November 1980. In the circumstances, the learned magistrate is directed to hear all concerned at an early date. The petitioner (accused) is also hereby directed to appear before the learned magistrate on the next date of hearing set down therein."

This was a great victory for both Jacob and me. After the ruling came from the High Court that we had won the case, it raised our spirits tremendously. Now the matter was referred back to the Lower Court and it had been ordered that it be dealt with as soon as possible. To the amazement of everyone we had pursued and won the High Court case. Everyone had advised us against filing the case and fighting against the government because they had considered it too difficult to win. Probably most of them had concluded that we had been in the wrong anyway and that we were only putting on a show of fighting the system.

Things should have progressed smoothly after this. The case was also in the process of being withdrawn from the court by the police. Our winning the High Court ruling and the new order that the matter be dealt with as soon as possible looked as though the things were improving.

At least they should have been. Although it was an immense victory and gave us the badly needed encouragement, we were now right back at the beginning. Nothing had changed. The case had taken almost two years to be heard in the High Court. While it looked as though things were improving, the prospect did not look good from the premise that I had to start attending court by being present whenever required. I just hated that.