She was with the crime investigation branch at Hanumandhoka seven years ago. As head constable there, it was her duty to listen to people"s grievances and assure them justice. In most of the cases, women would narrate harrowing tales of how their own husbands ruined their lives and would plead that they be put away behind bars. These days, Lila herself is jostling against the crowd to make her story heard, a stark look in her eyes and her voice chocked like any other victim. Her message is that even being a policewoman could not save her from being trafficked and sold into a brothel.

She was sent to Bangkok and he would join her later so that they could go on to America to make their fortune.

'He always showed me a lot of love and care. I trusted him, and I paid the price. The same day I reached Bangkok, five or six Indians gang-raped me. They knew him and laughed when I mentioned his name. I had no choice but to accept the fact that I had landed in a brothel and he had set me up. I spent six hellish months like a prisoner until one day I decided to escape come what may. '

Lila was in the police department nearly eight years. She had two children from a previous husband who was extremely abusive. In fact, Lila had joined the police as payback for his injuring her back severely, thereby teaching him a lesson. She would never meet him again.

Then a new man came into her life, posing as her savoir, said Lila. They started living together, and she conceived.

'I thought he"d be happy over the pregnancy, but he asked me to abort it, stating that he might not love her other two children if he fathered a child of his own, ' said Lila.

Her story is more like fiction than fact, with twists and turns, deceptions, pain and also blessings. However, the pain far outweighed the joys. Her trauma shows though her beautiful glowing face try as she might to hide it.

Lila used to be religious. But six grim months in the brothel eroded her faith in all the Hindu deities. She even tore up the photos of the gods that she used to carry inside her purse. But just when all hope was lost, God opened the way. At least, that"s what she likes to believe.

'After jumping from the brothel building that day, I somehow reached a nearby church. And just next door was was an UN office. Furthermore, I ran into a Nepali man who helped me.'

She burst into tears and the compatriot took her to the church. They discussed about her situation and finally her cause was handled by some UN officials. Lila got to live in America under the refugee quota.

Her second husband, whom she had by now come to know was a charlatan, was still in touch with her through email and later facebook. He said he was sorry, he had been caught up in some problems and so could not attend to her.

She could not speak her mind to him as he was in touch with her children back in Nepal. Though they were looked after by her sisters and other relatives, they might come under threat if she sounded vengeful with him.

'He was trying to make it out that he had no hand in sending me to the brothel. But he had taken all my savings and whatever property I had, and my Bankgok trip was all a plot he had hatched. Even the documents he showed me, including our marriage certificate, turned out to be fake. My blunder was to trust him.'

The case is under investigation, and SSP Pushkar Karki at Hanumandhoka police station said their marriage was not registered at all. 'We are not in a position to make any statement about the case as the investigations are ongoing. She left the police force without any notice, that much is true,' he said.

Rakshya Nepal, where Lila first turned to for help, did some investigations. According to Menuka Thapa at Rakshya, Lila"s so-called second husband has expanded his business in quite a short time. 'He has investment in a carpet factory, schools and so on. We have no doubt that he was involvement in trafficking her. But whether it was just Lila or others also have been exploited by him or his network is still unknown,' Thapa said.

The problem here is lack of evidence, states Swagat Nepal, an advocate handling Lila"s case. 'There"s no evidence of Lila giving him money, his involvement is not seen in the Bangkok trip, and the marriage is not registered. And when there is no evidence, police are hardly keen to get involved.'

On the first day of their encounter at Hanumandhoka police station, the man refused to recognize Lila. On follow-up visits, he gradually accepted everything except that he knowingly sold her off. On Monday, he said, 'You still live in my heart, and I can see myself in yours. I trusted those men in Bangkok, they betrayed me. Later I could not come to your help as I was in difficulties,' Lila quoted him as saying.

He"s now trying to settle matters without police involvement. He has offered the Rs 5,600,000 that Lila had given him earlier, informed Nepal.

Lila is now in a quandry, as the advocate says that her case is weak. She does not have evidence of their having lived together, his sending him to Bangkok or the deliberate ruining of her life. Nepal is also worried that the case may collapse without Lila getting justice if she does not act with caution.

'I wanted to forget what happened to me in the past and move on. But often in my dream, and while alone in my room, I would see his face, the men pouncing at me and stripping off my clothes and he sitting in the back with a smile. After I came to know about the cases of Puja Bohora and others where justice was secured after many years, I became hopeful again,' said Lila who is waiting to return to the USA once the case is resolved. She has been in Nepal for over a month now.

The so-called husband was not eager to talk to media at the police station on Monday. Later when reached over his mobile phone, somebody else answered and said the mobile did not belong to him.

Whether or not he had direct links with the men in Bangkok or to what extend he was guilty is yet to be established. However, the 40-year-old woman"s story reflects on the safety of women in Nepal and elsewhere, given the powerful trafficking networks across the globe.

Published on: 22 April 2015 | Republica