PRIYANKA DUBEY.

▮ Identity sealed · POCSO §23

Journalist, The Caravan magazine

Delhi

“Priyanka Dubey is a celebrated investigative journalist who wrote the cover story 'The Nightmarish Struggle to Bring Asaram to Justice' for *The Caravan* in 2017. Dubey spent years reporting from the Jodhpur court and the victim's hometown, exposing the systemic intimidation faced by the family and witnesses.”

Priyanka Dubey is an award-winning bilingual investigative journalist who has reported for major national and international media houses, including BBC Hindi and *The Caravan* magazine. She is known for her deep, on-ground reporting on gender-based violence and human rights issues in India. In 2014, she began covering the Jodhpur rape trial against Asaram Bapu, focusing on the social and legal challenges faced by the minor victim's family in their struggle for justice.

In April 2017, Dubey published a landmark cover story for *The Caravan* titled 'The Nightmarish Struggle to Bring Asaram to Justice'. The long-form investigative piece provided the most comprehensive account of the case, detailing how the victim's family in Shahjahanpur was isolated, threatened, and offered massive bribes by Asaram's emissaries. Dubey also investigated the coordinate attacks on witnesses, detailing the confession of Kartik Haldar and exposing the failure of the police to protect key prosecution witnesses.

Dubey expanded her reporting on the case in a chapter of her critically acclaimed book, 'No Nation for Women: Reportage on Rape from India's Heartland', published by HarperCollins in 2018. The book analyzed the structural flaws in the Indian criminal justice system, using the Asaram Bapu trial to illustrate how wealthy and politically connected defendants can use delay tactics and intimidation to exhaust victims. Dubey's reporting from Jodhpur and Shahjahanpur was praised for its empathy and journalistic rigor.

Her work was instrumental in keeping public attention focused on the trial, countering the extensive public relations campaigns run by Asaram's trust. Dubey continues to work as a senior journalist in New Delhi, writing on social justice, gender issues, and public policy. Her coverage of the Asaram trial remains a model for investigative journalism on institutional abuse in India.