Thursday, September 12, 2013
Delhi rape sentencing: A look at death penalty in India
India: Four men convicted on Tuesday of gang-raping and murdering a young woman in December face sentencing on Friday. The men, including a part-time bus driver, were joy-riding through New Delhi on a bus on the night of December 16 when they lured the 23-year-old woman and a male friend of hers into boarding. They then beat the friend, took turns raping the woman and violated her savagely with an iron rod. She died two weeks later of internal injuries. They now face the possibility of execution or life in prison.
The prosecutor asked Judge Yogesh Khanna on Wednesday to sentence the men to death, calling the crime barbaric. Their lawyers have called for prison sentences, citing their poverty, poor education and lack of criminal history. Representational image. AFP -India’s legal system allows for execution in what the Supreme Court calls “the rarest of the rare cases.” What defines those cases remains highly debated, but the only executions in recent years have been of convicted terrorists.
The vast majority of the 100-150 death sentences handed down each year are eventually commuted to life in prison. India is thought to have carried out about 50 executions since independence in 1947. -All execution orders must be confirmed by India’s High Court, and cases can also be appealed to the Supreme Court. Final appeals for clemency are made to India’s president. The office of the current president, Pranab Mukherjee, says it does not keep track of how many clemency appeals it receives or signs.
Media reports indicate he has rejected the clemency pleas of 17 people, and commuted one execution. That hard-line attitude is widely seen as an effort by the Congress party, which faces national elections next year, not to look weak on terrorism. Mukherjee is a long-time Congress leader. -For nearly a decade, India had an unofficial moratorium on executions. That ended in November 2012 with the execution of Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving gunmen in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Two months later, Mohammad Afzal Guru, convicted in a deadly 2001 attack on India’s Parliament complex, was also hanged. Both of the executions were done secretly, without any public notice. If the four men are sentenced to hang, it is unclear when they would be executed. -Executions are done by hanging in India, carried out in prisons across the country. Many of the ropes used are made by prisoners at a jail in eastern India.
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/delhi-rape-sentencing-a-look-at-death-penalty-in-india-1103957.html
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
India prosecutors seek death for Delhi rapists, defense urges mercy
By Sanjeev Miglani and Sruthi Gottipat
- Indian prosecutors demanded on Wednesday the death penalty for four men convicted of raping and murdering a 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist last December, saying it was important to send a signal to the country that such crimes would not be tolerated.
"The common man will lose faith in the judiciary if the harshest punishment is not given," special public prosecutor Dayan Krishnan told trial judge Yogesh Khanna, who will sentence the men on Friday.
Indeed, outside the court, popular opinion on social media sites and comments by top politicians suggest many Indians want to see the men hanged for a crime the brutality of which shocked even in a country where sex crimes against women are rife.
Social commentators say the attack has forced Indians to confront an uncomfortable truth - that social change, in particular patriarchal attitudes towards women, has not kept pace with rapid economic growth over the past decade.
The case has resonated with thousands of urban Indians who took to the streets in fury after the attack. The victim became a symbol of the daily dangers women face in a country where a rape is reported on average every 21 minutes and acid attacks and incidents of molestation are common.
Bus cleaner Akshay Kumar Singh, gym instructor Vinay Sharma, fruit-seller Pawan Gupta, and unemployed Mukesh Singh stood at the back of the courtroom surrounded by policemen. They showed no emotion as Krishnan described their crime as "diabolical" and called for them to be hanged.
The parents of the victim, who may not be identified for legal reasons, sat just feet away from the men. After the hearing, her father bluntly told reporters: "They finished my daughter, they deserve the same fate."
The men were found guilty on Tuesday of luring the woman and a male friend onto a bus as the pair returned home from watching a movie at a shopping mall on December 16.
As the bus drove through the streets of the capital, the men repeatedly raped the victim before dumping her and her friend, naked and semi-conscious, on the road.
The men used a metal rod and their hands to pull the woman's organs from her body after raping her, Krishnan said. Her injuries were so severe that she died in hospital in Singapore two weeks after the attack.
"This is an extreme case of depravity," Krishnan said, likening the woman's injuries to someone "cutting open a fruit".
All four of the men denied the charges. Three of them said they were never on the bus while a fourth admitted driving the vehicle but said he knew nothing of the crime. The prosecution said mobile phone records, CCTV footage, DNA evidence and bite marks on the woman's body placed the men at the scene.
India's interior minister, Sushilkumar Shinde said the death penalty was assured in the case, while a senior leader of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Sushma Swaraj, said it was important to "set an example for the future".
Under Indian law, the death penalty is reserved for the "rarest of rare" cases. Even when it is imposed, the authorities rarely carry out executions.
"Hang them, hang them," chanted a small group of protesters outside the court.
There are 477 prisoners on death row in India, according to the interior ministry. Last year, India carried out its first hanging in eight years when it executed the lone survivor of a squad ofPakistan-based militants who attacked Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people.
"JUDGES SHOULD NOT BE BLOODTHIRSTY"
Inside the court, lawyers for the four men pleaded for mercy and repeatedly highlighted the reluctance of Indian judges in the past to impose the death sentence.
Judges should not be bloodthirsty, said lawyer Vivek Sharma, who represents 19-year-old Gupta, the youngest of the four on trial. "You can't give capital punishment on demand."
Sharma said his client had not taken part in the rape or torture of the woman. He asked the court to take into account that Gupta was the sole breadwinner for his family and had to take care of his elderly parents and brother and sister.
A.P. Singh, lawyer for Kumar Singh and Sharma, said the death penalty was a "primitive and cold blooded and simplistic response to complex issues". He painted his clients as downtrodden who deserved a second chance.
Mukesh Singh, who said he had been driving the bus at the time of the attack, should not face the same penalty as his co-accused, his lawyer V.K. Anand told the court.
"At best, he can be held for aiding the others. Punish him, but punish him keeping in mind he was only driving the bus."
Women's rights groups have welcomed the guilty verdict but cautioned against giving the death sentence, saying that research across the world has shown that capital punishment does not act as a deterrent and the case should not set a precedent for all rapes to be punished with hanging.
If the men do receive the death penalty, India's high court will still have to confirm the sentences. The four are expected to file appeals, so proceedings could still go on for months or even years.
(This story has been refiled to remove reference to alias of one of the convicted men in paragraph 20)
(Additional reporting by Suchitra Mohanty and Anurag Kotoky; Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Delhi gang rape verdict on September 10
A fast track court in Delhi on Tuesday said it will give its judgment on September 10 in the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape case in which four accused are facing trial.
Additional Session Judge Yogesh Khanna reserved the order after defence counsel concluded their arguments. The prosecution ended its arguments earlier.
The case relates to a 23-year-old physiotherapist, who was brutally gang-raped in a moving bus by five men and a juvenile, after she boarded the vehicle with her male friend.
The victim later succumbed in a Singapore hospital, where she had been taken for treatment for her injuries.
One of the accused allegedly committed suicide in Tihar Jail, where he was lodged.
The juvenile was sentenced to three years stay at reform home by a Juvenile Justice Board on August 31.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/delhi-gang-rape-verdict-on-september-10/article5089281.ece
Punjab minor’s rapists get life imprisonment till death
Believed to be the first judgment of its kind in the country after the amendment in the anti-rape laws, a Punjab court on Tuesday sentenced two men to life imprisonment till death for a minor’s rape.
Additional District and Sessions Judge J.S. Bhinder in Hoshiarpur town sentenced Daljit Singh and Amarjit Singh to “undergo imprisonment for life, which shall mean imprisonment for the remainder of the convicts’ natural life”.
The court also imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000 each on both the convicts. They were also sentenced to undergo five years rigorous imprisonment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012. Both sentences would run concurrently.
The victim, a five-year-old, had gone missing from her house in Ibrahimpur village on February 18. Her mother traced her to the house of village resident Daljit Singh. The mother found the child being sexually molested by the two men.
Both of them were later arrested by police and charged for rape and other offences.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/punjab-minors-rapists-get-life-imprisonment-till-death/article5089737.ece
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Indian guru arrested for raping minor, pleads innocent - report
Indian guru arrested for raping minor, pleads innocent - report
Police escort spiritual leader
Asaram Bapu (C) outside an airport after his arrest in Jodhpur, in
India's desert state of Rajasthan.
NEW
DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – A popular Indian spiritual leader
who sparked controversy earlier this year when he said a gang rape and
murder victim should share the blame for her assault has been arrested
for raping a minor at his ashram, the Times of India reported on Monday.
Asaram Bapu, 72 – who has millions of followers in India and overseas – was charged on August 21 with the rape and sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in the western city of Jodhpur, but he evaded arrest for several days citing ill health and other reasons.
Medical tests conducted on the guru – who said he was impotent and could not have committed the assault – found him to be capable of the rape, the newspaper said.
"A potency test was conducted on him, which confirmed that he was strong enough to commit the crime of sexual assault and rape on the 16-year-old girl," Jodhpur's Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph was quoted as saying.
The alleged assault took place on August 15 when the girl, who was studying at a school owned by Asaram, was taken by her parents to the guru's ashram near Jodhpur after she became ill. The girl alleged he took her into his room and raped her, threatening to have his guards kill her family if she refused.
Asaram, who has denied the charges, has been remanded in custody for 14 days. Scores of his supporters have staged demonstrations in cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi claiming the guru is being framed. Some of the protests have turned violent.
Right-wing Hindu political groups have also opposed his arrest saying the allegations were an attack on "Hindu culture".
Asaram caused outrage in January when he suggested a 23-year-old student who died after she was beaten and raped on a moving bus in New Delhi and left bleeding on a highway in December should share the blame for the attack. She died in a Singapore hospita two weeks after the assault from internal injuries.
"Guilt is not one-sided," the guru had told his followers, adding that if the student had pleaded with her six attackers in God's name and told them she was of the "weaker sex", they would have relented.
Asaram Bapu, 72 – who has millions of followers in India and overseas – was charged on August 21 with the rape and sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in the western city of Jodhpur, but he evaded arrest for several days citing ill health and other reasons.
Medical tests conducted on the guru – who said he was impotent and could not have committed the assault – found him to be capable of the rape, the newspaper said.
"A potency test was conducted on him, which confirmed that he was strong enough to commit the crime of sexual assault and rape on the 16-year-old girl," Jodhpur's Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph was quoted as saying.
The alleged assault took place on August 15 when the girl, who was studying at a school owned by Asaram, was taken by her parents to the guru's ashram near Jodhpur after she became ill. The girl alleged he took her into his room and raped her, threatening to have his guards kill her family if she refused.
Asaram, who has denied the charges, has been remanded in custody for 14 days. Scores of his supporters have staged demonstrations in cities such as Mumbai and New Delhi claiming the guru is being framed. Some of the protests have turned violent.
Right-wing Hindu political groups have also opposed his arrest saying the allegations were an attack on "Hindu culture".
Asaram caused outrage in January when he suggested a 23-year-old student who died after she was beaten and raped on a moving bus in New Delhi and left bleeding on a highway in December should share the blame for the attack. She died in a Singapore hospita two weeks after the assault from internal injuries.
"Guilt is not one-sided," the guru had told his followers, adding that if the student had pleaded with her six attackers in God's name and told them she was of the "weaker sex", they would have relented.
Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20130902152548-0pcgw/?source=hptop
Monday, September 2, 2013
India Convicts Youngest Delhi Gang Rape Defendant
By
ASHOK SHARMA / AP WRITER
NEW DELHI — An Indian juvenile court on Saturday handed down the
first conviction in the fatal gang rape of a young woman on a moving New
Delhi bus, convicting a teenager of rape and murder and sentencing him
to three years in a reform home, lawyers said.
The victim’s parents denounced the sentence, which was the maximum the defendant faced. The family had long insisted the teen, who was 17 at the time of the December attack and is now 18, be tried as an adult—and thus face the death penalty—insisting he was the most brutal of the woman’s attackers.
“He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,” the victim’s mother, Asha Devi, told reporters after the verdict was announced.
Indian law forbids the publication of the teen’s name because he was sentenced in a juvenile court.
The attack, which left the 23-year-old victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked protests across the country and led to reforms of India’s antiquated sexual violence laws. The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift justice in the case.
The convicted teen was one of six people accused of tricking the woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus Dec. 16 after they had seen an afternoon showing of “Life of Pi” at an upscale shopping mall. Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her. They also beat her companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman later died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
The victim’s father said the family was deeply disappointed with the sentence.
“This is completely unacceptable to us,” Badrinath Singh said. “We are not satisfied with this outcome. He is virtually being set free. This is very wrong.”
“No family should have a daughter if this is the fate that lies ahead for women. In this country, it is crime to be born a girl,” he said.
Indian law forbids the publication of the names of rape victims, even if they die.
S.K. Singh, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said they would challenge the juvenile court’s verdict in a higher court.
“We will also seek a review of the man’s age by a medical panel, since we believe he was not a juvenile when the incident took place,” he said.
In India, especially in rural areas, many people do not have their births properly registered, and school certificates are used as proof of age.
Singh and the defendant’s lawyer, Rajesh Tewari, both confirmed the conviction and sentence.
Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom. Scores of television crews lined up on the road outside the court building beginning early Saturday, waiting for the verdict.
Four of the other defendants are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi and face the death penalty. The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March. The court is expected to hand down the rest of the verdicts in September.
The convicted defendant was tried as a minor on charges including murder and rape. The time he has spent in a juvenile home since he was arrested in December will count toward his sentence, Tewari said.
The attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country and led to an overhaul of sexual assault laws.
A government panel set to suggest reforms to sexual assault laws rejected calls to lower the age at which people can be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
In July, India’s top court also refused to reduce the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years. However, it later agreed to hear a new petition seeking to take the “mental and intellectual maturity” of the defendant into account, and not just age.
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/43221
Students
in Ahmedabad, India, hold candles as they pray during a candlelight
vigil for a gang rape victim who was assaulted in New Delhi. (Photo:
Reuters)
The victim’s parents denounced the sentence, which was the maximum the defendant faced. The family had long insisted the teen, who was 17 at the time of the December attack and is now 18, be tried as an adult—and thus face the death penalty—insisting he was the most brutal of the woman’s attackers.
“He should be hanged irrespective of whether he is a juvenile or not. He should be punished for what he did to my daughter,” the victim’s mother, Asha Devi, told reporters after the verdict was announced.
Indian law forbids the publication of the teen’s name because he was sentenced in a juvenile court.
The attack, which left the 23-year-old victim with such extensive internal injuries that she died two weeks later, sparked protests across the country and led to reforms of India’s antiquated sexual violence laws. The government, facing immense public pressure, had promised swift justice in the case.
The convicted teen was one of six people accused of tricking the woman and her male companion into boarding an off-duty bus Dec. 16 after they had seen an afternoon showing of “Life of Pi” at an upscale shopping mall. Police say the men raped the woman and used a metal bar to inflict massive internal injuries to her. They also beat her companion. The victims were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman later died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital.
The victim’s father said the family was deeply disappointed with the sentence.
“This is completely unacceptable to us,” Badrinath Singh said. “We are not satisfied with this outcome. He is virtually being set free. This is very wrong.”
“No family should have a daughter if this is the fate that lies ahead for women. In this country, it is crime to be born a girl,” he said.
Indian law forbids the publication of the names of rape victims, even if they die.
S.K. Singh, a lawyer for the victim’s family, said they would challenge the juvenile court’s verdict in a higher court.
“We will also seek a review of the man’s age by a medical panel, since we believe he was not a juvenile when the incident took place,” he said.
In India, especially in rural areas, many people do not have their births properly registered, and school certificates are used as proof of age.
Singh and the defendant’s lawyer, Rajesh Tewari, both confirmed the conviction and sentence.
Reporters were not allowed inside the courtroom. Scores of television crews lined up on the road outside the court building beginning early Saturday, waiting for the verdict.
Four of the other defendants are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi and face the death penalty. The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March. The court is expected to hand down the rest of the verdicts in September.
The convicted defendant was tried as a minor on charges including murder and rape. The time he has spent in a juvenile home since he was arrested in December will count toward his sentence, Tewari said.
The attack set off furious protests across India about the treatment of women in the country and led to an overhaul of sexual assault laws.
A government panel set to suggest reforms to sexual assault laws rejected calls to lower the age at which people can be tried as adults from 18 to 16.
In July, India’s top court also refused to reduce the age of a juvenile from 18 to 16 years. However, it later agreed to hear a new petition seeking to take the “mental and intellectual maturity” of the defendant into account, and not just age.
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/43221
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
In India, A Culture Where Rape is Routine
by Dilip D’Souza
Demonstrators
shout slogans during a protest against the rape of a photojournalist by
five men in Mumbai on August 23, 2013. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
In these days, as Mumbai is agog with news of another rape,
a young journalist friend told me about a conversation on a suburban
train. She was in the women's compartment, on her way to work not far
from where this latest outrage happened. Naturally, several women around
her were discussing the episode.
One woman zeroed in on—wait for it—the core of the issue. "You look at the clothes these girls are wearing these days," she said. "Why just one, she should have been raped by 10 men!"
Outraged by this remark, my friend tried to say something. The woman rounded on her: "You keep out of this, I wasn't talking to you!"
Rudeness apart, here's my opinion, whatever it's worth: Attitudes like this—and it's a delusion to think they are not widespread—will ensure that women keep getting raped. And this is why the lesson for me, to take from one more ghastly rape, is about attitudes.
Like the rickshaw driver's attitude: Not long ago, I took a rickshaw home from the airport. We passed a long stretch that is a favorite spot for young lovers seeking a modicum of privacy. In a city that affords them so little, they find it, ironically, on the side of a busy highway. On any given evening, that stretch is populated by dozens of young couples, embracing and chatting and kissing, as couples must do. All as cars and buses and taxis, sometimes with loads of gawkers, zip past.
As we drove by that day, my til-then-silent rickshaw driver began muttering. He was clearly irate about something and soon he couldn't keep his feelings to himself any longer. "All these people," he burst out, waving a hairy arm at the lovers so vigorously that our rickshaw careened across the lanes, "someone should bring a gun and shoot them all dead, one by one."
"Why?" I spluttered, confounded.
"Don't you see?" he said. "They are spoiling our Indian culture!"
Ah yes, that Indian culture that, no doubt, calls for the wholesale murder of cooing couples. That's the one my driver must have meant.
Like the collegiate moral brigade's attitude: One evening a few weeks ago, 70 city college students turned up at another favorite lovers' hangout spot, a 20-minute walk from the highway stretch. It was International Youth Day, August 12, and to observe it, these kids had come up with the perfect campaign.
What they did was they surrounded other young people they found there—more couples doing some cuddling—and "asked them to refrain from public displays of affection (PDA)." They held up placards that said (in Hindi, in which it rhymes better): "The crime you're committing with your girlfriend, go get a room", and "Have some shame, do all this in your home."
Note the "your girlfriend." As ever with moral champions, somehow it's the man corrupting the woman.
One of these moral policewomen—herself just 17—had this to say: "We would like to frequent places such as [this] but prefer not to because it is full of people indulging in embarrassing displays of affection. We are not against couples, but only against those indulging in PDA which makes others uncomfortable. They should instead get rooms and do it in privacy."
It embarrasses her and makes her uncomfortable, but she chooses nevertheless to close in on these couples and harass them. What we're seeing here is what Alexander Cockburn once saw as well, after the Monica Lewinsky episode: "What we're seeing here is one of the most disgusting of all spectacles: Puritans wringing their hands while clambering on one another's shoulders to peep in the bedroom window."
Like the god-man's attitude: soon after the horrifying rape of a young woman in Delhi last December, the famous "spiritual leader" Asaram Bapu announced that the girl was as much at fault for what happened to her as the rapists were. Mistakes, he said, are "not committed [only] from one side." What's more, he said, the woman "should have taken God's name and ... held the hand of one of the men and said 'I consider you as my brother', and should have said to the other two, 'Brother I am helpless, you are my brother, my religious brother.'"
Had she done this, said Asaram Bapu, "the misconduct wouldn't have happened."
Never mind the reference to a gang rape and murder—for the woman eventually died of her wounds—as mere "misconduct.” Never mind the nearly obscene advice that a woman about to be raped should call the murderous thugs "brothers" in the hope that this would save her. Never mind those things, and merely consider Asaram Bapu's most recent appearance in the public eye.
Just days ago, a 16 year-old girl accused the man himself of sexually assaulting her.
"Baseless allegations are leveled against me," said Asaram Bapu, "because I preach Indian culture."
Whatever.
In an angry, passionate outburst after this Mumbai rape, Lakshmi Chaudhry writes: "[Indian women] all live with a debilitating sense of being under constant siege, an ever-present anxiety that a lewd comment or casual grope may lead to a full-on assault; the nagging worry that this auto or cab or bus driver may turn out to be the wrong one; the paranoia triggered by a slowly circling car filled with men. This, this is the price of being a woman in India. And it is paid by all of us, irrespective of color, caste or class."
The price, indeed. Let's talk about attitude. Let's talk about culture. In fact, let's give Chaudhry the last word there: "The ugl[y] reality is that while rape may be considered a crime, we live in a culture where sexual harassment is so routine as to be unremarkable."
One woman zeroed in on—wait for it—the core of the issue. "You look at the clothes these girls are wearing these days," she said. "Why just one, she should have been raped by 10 men!"
Outraged by this remark, my friend tried to say something. The woman rounded on her: "You keep out of this, I wasn't talking to you!"
Rudeness apart, here's my opinion, whatever it's worth: Attitudes like this—and it's a delusion to think they are not widespread—will ensure that women keep getting raped. And this is why the lesson for me, to take from one more ghastly rape, is about attitudes.
Like the rickshaw driver's attitude: Not long ago, I took a rickshaw home from the airport. We passed a long stretch that is a favorite spot for young lovers seeking a modicum of privacy. In a city that affords them so little, they find it, ironically, on the side of a busy highway. On any given evening, that stretch is populated by dozens of young couples, embracing and chatting and kissing, as couples must do. All as cars and buses and taxis, sometimes with loads of gawkers, zip past.
As we drove by that day, my til-then-silent rickshaw driver began muttering. He was clearly irate about something and soon he couldn't keep his feelings to himself any longer. "All these people," he burst out, waving a hairy arm at the lovers so vigorously that our rickshaw careened across the lanes, "someone should bring a gun and shoot them all dead, one by one."
"Why?" I spluttered, confounded.
"Don't you see?" he said. "They are spoiling our Indian culture!"
Ah yes, that Indian culture that, no doubt, calls for the wholesale murder of cooing couples. That's the one my driver must have meant.
Like the collegiate moral brigade's attitude: One evening a few weeks ago, 70 city college students turned up at another favorite lovers' hangout spot, a 20-minute walk from the highway stretch. It was International Youth Day, August 12, and to observe it, these kids had come up with the perfect campaign.
What they did was they surrounded other young people they found there—more couples doing some cuddling—and "asked them to refrain from public displays of affection (PDA)." They held up placards that said (in Hindi, in which it rhymes better): "The crime you're committing with your girlfriend, go get a room", and "Have some shame, do all this in your home."
Note the "your girlfriend." As ever with moral champions, somehow it's the man corrupting the woman.
One of these moral policewomen—herself just 17—had this to say: "We would like to frequent places such as [this] but prefer not to because it is full of people indulging in embarrassing displays of affection. We are not against couples, but only against those indulging in PDA which makes others uncomfortable. They should instead get rooms and do it in privacy."
It embarrasses her and makes her uncomfortable, but she chooses nevertheless to close in on these couples and harass them. What we're seeing here is what Alexander Cockburn once saw as well, after the Monica Lewinsky episode: "What we're seeing here is one of the most disgusting of all spectacles: Puritans wringing their hands while clambering on one another's shoulders to peep in the bedroom window."
Like the god-man's attitude: soon after the horrifying rape of a young woman in Delhi last December, the famous "spiritual leader" Asaram Bapu announced that the girl was as much at fault for what happened to her as the rapists were. Mistakes, he said, are "not committed [only] from one side." What's more, he said, the woman "should have taken God's name and ... held the hand of one of the men and said 'I consider you as my brother', and should have said to the other two, 'Brother I am helpless, you are my brother, my religious brother.'"
Had she done this, said Asaram Bapu, "the misconduct wouldn't have happened."
Never mind the reference to a gang rape and murder—for the woman eventually died of her wounds—as mere "misconduct.” Never mind the nearly obscene advice that a woman about to be raped should call the murderous thugs "brothers" in the hope that this would save her. Never mind those things, and merely consider Asaram Bapu's most recent appearance in the public eye.
Just days ago, a 16 year-old girl accused the man himself of sexually assaulting her.
"Baseless allegations are leveled against me," said Asaram Bapu, "because I preach Indian culture."
Whatever.
In an angry, passionate outburst after this Mumbai rape, Lakshmi Chaudhry writes: "[Indian women] all live with a debilitating sense of being under constant siege, an ever-present anxiety that a lewd comment or casual grope may lead to a full-on assault; the nagging worry that this auto or cab or bus driver may turn out to be the wrong one; the paranoia triggered by a slowly circling car filled with men. This, this is the price of being a woman in India. And it is paid by all of us, irrespective of color, caste or class."
The price, indeed. Let's talk about attitude. Let's talk about culture. In fact, let's give Chaudhry the last word there: "The ugl[y] reality is that while rape may be considered a crime, we live in a culture where sexual harassment is so routine as to be unremarkable."
Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/08/28/in-india-a-culture-where-rape-is-routine.html
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
What has changed since December 16?
by Flavia Agnes
Since the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai on August 22, I’m constantly being asked two questions by the media — print media, television media, international media, the British, the American, the French, the Australian, the entire lot.
The first question: Has there been any change at all since the public protests following the gruesome gangrape of a young women in Delhi in December and the law reforms that followed or does one get a feeling of déja vu? And the second: Is Mumbai going the Delhi way and losing its sheen as a safe city for women? And the associated question — Will this incident change the way women in Mumbai think, feel, work and will their lives be ruled by the constant shadow of rape that will hover over them?
I hope not. I believe that women of Mumbai are made of sterner metal and one such incident cannot change the way they think or work. Incidents such as these are not unusual for Mumbai or any other city for that matter. We have had a fair share of them. Many go unreported, and even if reported, many don’t get a lot of media attention — most at best get a three-line report on the ninth page of the newspaper, which no one notices.
But what has changed now is the media attention, both national and international, and the curiosity and voyeurism masquerading as concern. As a photojournalist and an acquaintance of the survivor responded, shrugging her well-built shoulders during a talk show on television, “Not at all, why should this incident change my life? I have surmounted worse hurdles and have emerged a winner. Why would this incident mar my life?” This summarises the spirit of a working woman in Mumbai whose labour holds up this financial capital. How can five lumpen youth from poverty stricken and marginalised families shake its base?
The blood-thirsty media has splashed photographs of old and frail women in their meagre dwellings in a vulgar display of this flashy and opulent city’s underbelly of poverty and subhuman existence for us to gloat over. They seem to be making the point that it is these women and their dwellings that breed rapists. And it appears that once again we will be braying for the blood of a teenaged boy on the cusp of maturity to cleanse the city of sexual crimes rather than ponder a viable scheme of income redistribution and poverty elevation, so that every poor child’s basic needs are fulfilled and an innocent child is not turned into a drug addict, a murderer or a rapist.
Why did the youth rape her? Because they thought they could get away with it. It is for the same reason that fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, cousins, neighbours, boyfriends, acquaintances, teachers, wardens, jailers, politicians, policemen, bosses, men who wield any type of power over a vulnerable woman think they can rape. Because reporting rape causes greater stigma to the victim and navigating the justice delivery system is an ordeal only the few brave ones can endure. Only when women learn to survive rape with courage and dignity, and when the justice delivery mechanism is able to sensitively respond to their need, will the situation improve. Opting out of work or not venturing out at night will not, since most rapes occur within the domestic space or in the neighbourhood. But, ironically, these rapes do not invoke the same type of media attention as the ones where the victim is from the middle class and the accused are lower class. The class bias in the media glare is very disturbing indeed.
The hordes of television cameras parked outside Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai to catch a glimpse of the young woman or her family members, threatening to intrude into their privacy, must be an equally frightening thought for the young woman as the threatening advances of the gang of five. Reporters have visited not only the scene of the crime, but also the girl’s residence. They have spoken to the watchman and are baffled that he and other residents were not aware that a woman from the building was raped the night before. Well, thanks to the media, now they know! In a recent case, popularly referred to as “the Spanish woman’s rape case”, while awaiting the test identification parade before flying out of the country, the young woman and her support person went around the city in a burqa to shield themselves from the intruding cameras which always seem to lurk round the corner as she got in and out of the car. This constant intrusion was her biggest nightmare, post the incident.
What has changed since the December incident? Well, that our women parliamentarians did not screech in high-pitched voices and proclaim that the woman has become a “zinda lash”, a living corpse; that threatened with a broken bottle, the young woman did not think that she must fight till she dies to save her honour and her virginity. Sensing danger, she acquiesced. She opted for life rather than to become a martyr at the altar of sexual purity and has challenged the judicial premise that virginity is the most priced possession of an Indian woman. What has changed is that she has pledged from her hospital bed that she will not let this incident ruin her life and that she is eager to get back to work. (The hounding by the media will hopefully stop by then!)
This is the most important lesson this incident has taught us.
It may take a few weeks, a few months or even a few years to overcome the trauma, but hopefully, when she does, she will be able to tell us the story of how she survived rape and became a survivor.
***The writer is a women’s rights lawyer
Since the gang rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai on August 22, I’m constantly being asked two questions by the media — print media, television media, international media, the British, the American, the French, the Australian, the entire lot.
The first question: Has there been any change at all since the public protests following the gruesome gangrape of a young women in Delhi in December and the law reforms that followed or does one get a feeling of déja vu? And the second: Is Mumbai going the Delhi way and losing its sheen as a safe city for women? And the associated question — Will this incident change the way women in Mumbai think, feel, work and will their lives be ruled by the constant shadow of rape that will hover over them?
I hope not. I believe that women of Mumbai are made of sterner metal and one such incident cannot change the way they think or work. Incidents such as these are not unusual for Mumbai or any other city for that matter. We have had a fair share of them. Many go unreported, and even if reported, many don’t get a lot of media attention — most at best get a three-line report on the ninth page of the newspaper, which no one notices.
But what has changed now is the media attention, both national and international, and the curiosity and voyeurism masquerading as concern. As a photojournalist and an acquaintance of the survivor responded, shrugging her well-built shoulders during a talk show on television, “Not at all, why should this incident change my life? I have surmounted worse hurdles and have emerged a winner. Why would this incident mar my life?” This summarises the spirit of a working woman in Mumbai whose labour holds up this financial capital. How can five lumpen youth from poverty stricken and marginalised families shake its base?
The blood-thirsty media has splashed photographs of old and frail women in their meagre dwellings in a vulgar display of this flashy and opulent city’s underbelly of poverty and subhuman existence for us to gloat over. They seem to be making the point that it is these women and their dwellings that breed rapists. And it appears that once again we will be braying for the blood of a teenaged boy on the cusp of maturity to cleanse the city of sexual crimes rather than ponder a viable scheme of income redistribution and poverty elevation, so that every poor child’s basic needs are fulfilled and an innocent child is not turned into a drug addict, a murderer or a rapist.
Why did the youth rape her? Because they thought they could get away with it. It is for the same reason that fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, cousins, neighbours, boyfriends, acquaintances, teachers, wardens, jailers, politicians, policemen, bosses, men who wield any type of power over a vulnerable woman think they can rape. Because reporting rape causes greater stigma to the victim and navigating the justice delivery system is an ordeal only the few brave ones can endure. Only when women learn to survive rape with courage and dignity, and when the justice delivery mechanism is able to sensitively respond to their need, will the situation improve. Opting out of work or not venturing out at night will not, since most rapes occur within the domestic space or in the neighbourhood. But, ironically, these rapes do not invoke the same type of media attention as the ones where the victim is from the middle class and the accused are lower class. The class bias in the media glare is very disturbing indeed.
The hordes of television cameras parked outside Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai to catch a glimpse of the young woman or her family members, threatening to intrude into their privacy, must be an equally frightening thought for the young woman as the threatening advances of the gang of five. Reporters have visited not only the scene of the crime, but also the girl’s residence. They have spoken to the watchman and are baffled that he and other residents were not aware that a woman from the building was raped the night before. Well, thanks to the media, now they know! In a recent case, popularly referred to as “the Spanish woman’s rape case”, while awaiting the test identification parade before flying out of the country, the young woman and her support person went around the city in a burqa to shield themselves from the intruding cameras which always seem to lurk round the corner as she got in and out of the car. This constant intrusion was her biggest nightmare, post the incident.
What has changed since the December incident? Well, that our women parliamentarians did not screech in high-pitched voices and proclaim that the woman has become a “zinda lash”, a living corpse; that threatened with a broken bottle, the young woman did not think that she must fight till she dies to save her honour and her virginity. Sensing danger, she acquiesced. She opted for life rather than to become a martyr at the altar of sexual purity and has challenged the judicial premise that virginity is the most priced possession of an Indian woman. What has changed is that she has pledged from her hospital bed that she will not let this incident ruin her life and that she is eager to get back to work. (The hounding by the media will hopefully stop by then!)
This is the most important lesson this incident has taught us.
It may take a few weeks, a few months or even a few years to overcome the trauma, but hopefully, when she does, she will be able to tell us the story of how she survived rape and became a survivor.
***The writer is a women’s rights lawyer
Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/what-has-changed-december-16-105
Monday, August 26, 2013
A rape is a rape. Period.
A
rape is a rape is a rape. At least one would think so: any violation of
a woman’s body is brutal, it is physically damaging, but more than that
it is psychologically traumatising to such an extent that the person is
scarred for life.
Our hearts, therefore, go out to the victim of the gang rape in Mumbai; we want to say sorry to her on behalf of every male in the world, but we know that’s a meaningless gesture. We end up doing nothing, except hoping that time will heal the wounds.
In the first three months of this year, 91 cases of rape were registered across various police stations in Mumbai, for long considered India’s safest city. If that average is maintained through the year, 2013 will be one of the worst years ever. Figures over the recent past confirm a rising graph: in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, the number of rapes totalled 192, 219 and 231 respectively. Here we are talking of registered rapes; as any sociologist will tell you, there are many more that go unreported. That’s because many take place within families, and families do a cover-up to “save face”; many others go unreported because the woman is too scared to file a report.
Then, of course, there are rapes which do not enter our consciousness. On Thursday, August 22, the day the gangrape of the photojournalist took place in Mumbai, only about three kilometers away an unidentified man lured a six-year-old girl with chocolate, took her to a secluded spot and molested her. For some unexplained reason, he didn’t rape her, which is the only surprising element in the story because our newspapers carry tiny items like this on the city pages every other day: the “action” takes place in a slum, a man —
usually a neighbour — sees a little girl by herself, offers to buy her chocolate (the only weapon needed in these cases), takes her to an isolated place and rapes her. If she is lucky, he sends her off with a warning; if she isn’t, he kills her.
The police may register these cases if the girl’s parents insist, but they certainly don’t register all. For us, this has happened in a slum, in the underbelly of the city where “these things happen”. These brutalised young girls probably suffer even greater physical and mental trauma than an older, educated woman who can secure better medical treatment and counselling, but do we really care?
Don’t misunderstand me: I am in no way belittling the horror of the young (and brave) photojournalist; I am just pointing out that a rape is a rape is a rape isn’t necessarily true. We get roused into action only when someone like us is affected. But isn’t every single rape a human tragedy of the worst kind? And surely every single rape should shock us into action?
What should that action be? The Shakti Mills rape case has brought on the usual shrill cries of “Hang the rapists!” or “Castrate them all!” Spokesmen of political outfits like the Shiv Sena, always looking for opportunities to flaunt their favourite battle-cry, jump up and say, “These crimes happen because of outsiders and migrants.” They say this even before any of the suspects are caught and, for all you know, all of them were born and brought up in Amchi Mumbai. Whatever their origins, punishment like castration and hanging should never feature in any debate on rape. At least not in a civilised country. Chemical castration has been used in the West, but only for habitual offenders who, after repeated sexual crimes and repeated incarcerations, show no sign of either repentance or reform.
So what is to be done in rape cases? Punishment, without doubt, should be severe — perhaps as severe as life imprisonment. The judicial process should be quick and taken up in fast-track courts so that the accused doesn’t get off on bail with a chance to further traumatise the victim.
Yet, will this stop rapes? Realistically, it is impossible for the police force, given its small numbers, to patrol all isolated areas. Some experts have said that rapes wouldn’t happen if people were afraid of the law, but is this really true? Most rapes are committed on the spur of the moment: an opportunity is seen and, literally, seized. In such a scenario, the rapist acts without any thought of the consequences, so the prospect of even a long jail term does not act as a deterrent. If we look at both the December 16 gangrape in New Delhi and now the gangrape in Mumbai, the rapists don’t seem to have considered the consequences of their actions at all. In Delhi, they dumped the 23-year-old victim and her friend out of the bus in Mumbai, they only threatened the young photojournalist with uploading the pictures of the rape.
For women, and for us as a society, any solution has to be long term. And they have to focus on our attitudes to women. Recently, three women tourists from Delhi visiting a historic fort in Maharashtra were harassed by a group of young men who constantly brushed against them and also photographed them. A Chicago University student Michaela Cross’ article on the CNN blog has gone viral on the Internet. “Do I tell people about our first night in Pune when we danced in the Ganesh festival?” she writes, “Or do I tell them how the festival stopped when we started dancing, and every man began to film us? Do I tell them about bargaining at the bazaar for beautiful saris or the men who pushed by us, clawing at our breasts and groins? When people compliment me on my Indian sandals, do I talk about the man who stalked me for 45 minutes after I purchased them?”
This, sadly, is par for the course if you are a woman. How will all this change? With education? Better living spaces than slums? How long will all that take? Do women have to live through hell until then?
The writer is a senior journalist
Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/rape-rape-period-869
Our hearts, therefore, go out to the victim of the gang rape in Mumbai; we want to say sorry to her on behalf of every male in the world, but we know that’s a meaningless gesture. We end up doing nothing, except hoping that time will heal the wounds.
In the first three months of this year, 91 cases of rape were registered across various police stations in Mumbai, for long considered India’s safest city. If that average is maintained through the year, 2013 will be one of the worst years ever. Figures over the recent past confirm a rising graph: in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012, the number of rapes totalled 192, 219 and 231 respectively. Here we are talking of registered rapes; as any sociologist will tell you, there are many more that go unreported. That’s because many take place within families, and families do a cover-up to “save face”; many others go unreported because the woman is too scared to file a report.
Then, of course, there are rapes which do not enter our consciousness. On Thursday, August 22, the day the gangrape of the photojournalist took place in Mumbai, only about three kilometers away an unidentified man lured a six-year-old girl with chocolate, took her to a secluded spot and molested her. For some unexplained reason, he didn’t rape her, which is the only surprising element in the story because our newspapers carry tiny items like this on the city pages every other day: the “action” takes place in a slum, a man —
usually a neighbour — sees a little girl by herself, offers to buy her chocolate (the only weapon needed in these cases), takes her to an isolated place and rapes her. If she is lucky, he sends her off with a warning; if she isn’t, he kills her.
The police may register these cases if the girl’s parents insist, but they certainly don’t register all. For us, this has happened in a slum, in the underbelly of the city where “these things happen”. These brutalised young girls probably suffer even greater physical and mental trauma than an older, educated woman who can secure better medical treatment and counselling, but do we really care?
Don’t misunderstand me: I am in no way belittling the horror of the young (and brave) photojournalist; I am just pointing out that a rape is a rape is a rape isn’t necessarily true. We get roused into action only when someone like us is affected. But isn’t every single rape a human tragedy of the worst kind? And surely every single rape should shock us into action?
What should that action be? The Shakti Mills rape case has brought on the usual shrill cries of “Hang the rapists!” or “Castrate them all!” Spokesmen of political outfits like the Shiv Sena, always looking for opportunities to flaunt their favourite battle-cry, jump up and say, “These crimes happen because of outsiders and migrants.” They say this even before any of the suspects are caught and, for all you know, all of them were born and brought up in Amchi Mumbai. Whatever their origins, punishment like castration and hanging should never feature in any debate on rape. At least not in a civilised country. Chemical castration has been used in the West, but only for habitual offenders who, after repeated sexual crimes and repeated incarcerations, show no sign of either repentance or reform.
So what is to be done in rape cases? Punishment, without doubt, should be severe — perhaps as severe as life imprisonment. The judicial process should be quick and taken up in fast-track courts so that the accused doesn’t get off on bail with a chance to further traumatise the victim.
Yet, will this stop rapes? Realistically, it is impossible for the police force, given its small numbers, to patrol all isolated areas. Some experts have said that rapes wouldn’t happen if people were afraid of the law, but is this really true? Most rapes are committed on the spur of the moment: an opportunity is seen and, literally, seized. In such a scenario, the rapist acts without any thought of the consequences, so the prospect of even a long jail term does not act as a deterrent. If we look at both the December 16 gangrape in New Delhi and now the gangrape in Mumbai, the rapists don’t seem to have considered the consequences of their actions at all. In Delhi, they dumped the 23-year-old victim and her friend out of the bus in Mumbai, they only threatened the young photojournalist with uploading the pictures of the rape.
For women, and for us as a society, any solution has to be long term. And they have to focus on our attitudes to women. Recently, three women tourists from Delhi visiting a historic fort in Maharashtra were harassed by a group of young men who constantly brushed against them and also photographed them. A Chicago University student Michaela Cross’ article on the CNN blog has gone viral on the Internet. “Do I tell people about our first night in Pune when we danced in the Ganesh festival?” she writes, “Or do I tell them how the festival stopped when we started dancing, and every man began to film us? Do I tell them about bargaining at the bazaar for beautiful saris or the men who pushed by us, clawing at our breasts and groins? When people compliment me on my Indian sandals, do I talk about the man who stalked me for 45 minutes after I purchased them?”
This, sadly, is par for the course if you are a woman. How will all this change? With education? Better living spaces than slums? How long will all that take? Do women have to live through hell until then?
The writer is a senior journalist
Source: http://www.asianage.com/columnists/rape-rape-period-869
Friday, August 9, 2013
In India Rape Trial, Even Fast-Track Justice Plods
A student prays during a vigil for a gang rape victim, who was assaulted in New Delhi, in Ahmedabad. (Photo: Reuters)
NEW DELHI — The government promised swift justice after the gang rape of a young university student on a moving bus in India’s capital late last year sparked nationwide outrage.But speed is relative in a legal system so overburdened that even a normal criminal trial can stretch well over a decade.
NEW DELHI — The government promised swift justice after the gang rape of a young university student on a moving bus in India’s capital late last year sparked nationwide outrage.But speed is relative in a legal system so overburdened that even a normal criminal trial can stretch well over a decade.
The court was in session just two hours, as it is every day of the trial. Only one witness—out of nearly 100 called in the case—had time to testify. The judge himself translated the testimony sentence-by-sentence from Hindi into English, and carefully corrected the court stenographer’s errors.“That’s not how you spell ‘sign,’” the judge admonished, as assembled reporters and police nodded off in boredom.That was one of the more efficient days in the trial.On the bad days, the three mercurial defense lawyers delay proceedings with their infighting, accusing each other of colluding with the police or the prosecution. Or witnesses listed for cross-examination don’t show up—so the court adjourns early.
The attack on the 23-year-old woman in the heart of New Delhi on Dec. 16 shook a country long inured to brutality against its women. Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured into the streets demanding justice now, not the usual yearslong trial.The pressure led to the creation of a fast-track court for violence against women, and the rape was its first case. Optimists say closing arguments could be made by the end of August and a verdict reached in September.
“The judge has a busy case load and all of us lawyers also have other clients. We cannot drop all of them and just work on this case,” said A.P. Singh, one of the defense lawyers.While it’s not unusual in other countries for high-profile cases to drag on, the court hearing this trial was formed specifically for speed, a standard it hardly begins to meet.Still, if the case does wrap up soon, it would be remarkably fast by Indian standards.
One reason for the delays in India’s justice system is a shortage of judges. India—a country of 1.2 billion people—has approximately 11 judges for every million people, compared with roughly 110 per million in the United States, according to a 2009 report by India’s Law Commission, which was set up by the Law Ministry to suggest reforms. Then there is the endemic problem of corruption, which delays the process of gathering evidence and ensuring cases are trial ready. Court procedures lack flexibility and often involve excruciating layers of paperwork.
The commission has suggested the entire legal system be overhauled, with more judges, time limits on trials and bans on “frivolous” adjournments.Meanwhile, the rape case keeps throwing up new twists. Last month, the lawyer of two of the surviving adult defendants accused a third of changing his testimony at the last minute to get a lighter sentence at the cost of his co-accused.The four defendants are accused of convincing the woman and her male companion to board an off-duty bus after the pair had watched an evening movie at an upscale shopping mall. The police say the men then raped the woman, using a metal rod to inflict such horrific injuries that she died two weeks later at a Singapore hospital. The four adult defendants all face charges of gang rape, murder and kidnapping and are likely to face the death sentence if convicted. A fifth defendant was found dead in his cell in March and a sixth is being tried as a juvenile.
The verdict in the trial of the juvenile was expected last month but has been indefinitely delayed.Mukesh Singh has testified he was driving the bus—even though his brother was the official bus driver—and did not attack the woman. But he said all the other defendants charged were there. The others have all claimed they were framed by the police and were not on the bus. A.P. Singh, who represents two other defendants, said Mukesh Singh had earlier said he didn’t know who was on the bus, but changed his account because “his lawyer has been hijacked by the police and is colluding with them.”One of the lawyers on Mukesh Singh’s defense team, Vibhor Anand, called A.P. Singh’s accusations “weird.”
“My client is only speaking the truth. He hasn’t changed his story at all. These are all false stories cooked up by other defense counsel,” Anand said. News reports say defense lawyers have shouted at one another in court. On a recent day in court, one defense lawyer smirked and giggled openly as another’s witness testified. The four accused, who in the early days of the trial came to court with their faces covered by caps and scarves, surrounded by dozens of policemen, now sit at the back of the courtroom listening blankly to the ongoing testimony. Each man is flanked by an officer. A few other policemen wait outside the courtroom.
While prosecutors refused to talk on the record to The Associated Press, news reports say they have consistently blamed the defense team for deliberately delaying proceedings. The defense blames the prosecutors, who have called a whopping 82 witnesses compared to their 15.
Rebecca John, a criminal lawyer who practices in India’s top court, said the prosecution had put up such a massive witness list because of the high profile nature of the case. She also criticized the fast track court system, saying it promised justice in only a few very visible cases.
“The entire Indian legal system needs to be overhauled and made fast-track,” she said. “When you fast-track one case out of 100 you actually slow-track all the others.”
Source: http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/41659
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Six steps India can take to help rape victims
NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - The outcry over the brutal
gang rape of a young woman in New Delhi last month has not only brought
into focus the issue of violence against women in India but has also
shone a light on the way the country's criminal justice system
frequently fails rape victims.
There were 24,206 rapes reported in 2011 by the National Crime Records Bureau, equivalent to one rape every 20 minutes.
While many Indians are calling for changes in the law such as capital punishment for rapists and new legislation to protect women, many civil rights' lawyers disagree. They say India has good gender laws already, but they need to be strengthened and enforced.
The following is a list of six steps India can take to ensure rape victims receive adequate care and support and that swift justice is delivered, compiled from interviews with police, lawyers and human rights activists.
1. GENDER SENSITISATION & MORE FEMALE POLICE
Like most large organisations in the country, India's police force is male-dominated – only 6.5 percent of officers are women. Deep-rooted patriarchal beliefs mean the police force, like many other institutions such as government bodies or parliament, is often seen as insensitive to the issues faced by women. Gender sensitisation training as well as increasing the number of female police officers in India will help change attitudes within the police force, activists and lawyers say. This would also help ensure victims' complaints are treated seriously and sympathetically.
2. MORE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
There have been numerous cases of girls and women being turned away by the police when they try to report a rape – officers do not take the crime seriously or they blame the victim.
In many instances, the largely underpaid, overworked police officers have little interest in registering or investigating a gender crime that can take years to reach judgment. Sometimes, if the accused is powerful or wealthy, police can be influenced into taking no action.
Activists say current methods of filing complaints against the police are cumbersome and difficult for the average Indian. A simple mechanism should be set up to channel and address public complaints and police should be penalised or suspended if found guilty of dereliction of duty, they add.
3. GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORT OF RAPE VICTIMS
India has no formal protocol in place for medical or psychological support of victims. They are often not given adequate treatment for injuries or infections, let alone counselling.
Cases have been reported of traumatised victims who are made to go from one government hospital to another for medical examinations or who are forced to sit for hours in bloodied clothes after the assault.
Activists say there needs to be a standard protocol across the country to examine and treat rape victims, such as the World Health Organisation's guidelines for medico-legal care for sexual assault victims.
4. STRENGTHENING RAPE INVESTIGATIONS
A failure to invest in the police force has left many officers lacking the expertise and resources required to conduct adequate investigations, resulting in weak evidence and low convictions.
Lawyers say the handling of forensic evidence such as fingerprints, hair or nail samples – a key component in rape cases where the onus lies with the prosecution to prove the rape – is often collected, transported and stored in a careless manner.
The core competencies of the police need to be strengthened and officers must be given training and resources to carry out their work, lawyers say. Standard operating procedures for conducting investigations need to be applied across the country, they add.
5. FAST-TRACK RAPE COURTS
One of the biggest impediments to gaining justice for rape victims is the lengthy duration of the trials, awyers say.
A lack of prosecutors, judges and courts mean that an average rape case can take five to 10 years to get to the judgment stage, leaving victims or other witnesses vulnerable to intimidation or unwilling to pursue such drawn-out court trials.
The Delhi gang rape has fuelled demands for special fast-track courts to deal with crimes against women, but some lawyers say not only are such courts costly but that swift justice does not always mean just justice.
Some legal experts add that India needs to invest more in the legal and judicial system and concentrate on hiring of thousands more judges and prosecutors.
6. WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
Victims and witnesses can be intimidated by the accused, who in some cases is granted bail by the court, even though rape is a non-bailable offence.
As a result, victims can feel pressured into accepting illegal "out-of-court" settlements such as a small cash payment. In more extreme instances, the victim's family is pressurised into marrying their daughter to the accused.
Lawyers and activists say India needs an official witness protection program in place for victims of sexual assault and other serious offences.
There were 24,206 rapes reported in 2011 by the National Crime Records Bureau, equivalent to one rape every 20 minutes.
While many Indians are calling for changes in the law such as capital punishment for rapists and new legislation to protect women, many civil rights' lawyers disagree. They say India has good gender laws already, but they need to be strengthened and enforced.
The following is a list of six steps India can take to ensure rape victims receive adequate care and support and that swift justice is delivered, compiled from interviews with police, lawyers and human rights activists.
1. GENDER SENSITISATION & MORE FEMALE POLICE
Like most large organisations in the country, India's police force is male-dominated – only 6.5 percent of officers are women. Deep-rooted patriarchal beliefs mean the police force, like many other institutions such as government bodies or parliament, is often seen as insensitive to the issues faced by women. Gender sensitisation training as well as increasing the number of female police officers in India will help change attitudes within the police force, activists and lawyers say. This would also help ensure victims' complaints are treated seriously and sympathetically.
2. MORE POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY
There have been numerous cases of girls and women being turned away by the police when they try to report a rape – officers do not take the crime seriously or they blame the victim.
In many instances, the largely underpaid, overworked police officers have little interest in registering or investigating a gender crime that can take years to reach judgment. Sometimes, if the accused is powerful or wealthy, police can be influenced into taking no action.
Activists say current methods of filing complaints against the police are cumbersome and difficult for the average Indian. A simple mechanism should be set up to channel and address public complaints and police should be penalised or suspended if found guilty of dereliction of duty, they add.
3. GUIDELINES FOR SUPPORT OF RAPE VICTIMS
India has no formal protocol in place for medical or psychological support of victims. They are often not given adequate treatment for injuries or infections, let alone counselling.
Cases have been reported of traumatised victims who are made to go from one government hospital to another for medical examinations or who are forced to sit for hours in bloodied clothes after the assault.
Activists say there needs to be a standard protocol across the country to examine and treat rape victims, such as the World Health Organisation's guidelines for medico-legal care for sexual assault victims.
4. STRENGTHENING RAPE INVESTIGATIONS
A failure to invest in the police force has left many officers lacking the expertise and resources required to conduct adequate investigations, resulting in weak evidence and low convictions.
Lawyers say the handling of forensic evidence such as fingerprints, hair or nail samples – a key component in rape cases where the onus lies with the prosecution to prove the rape – is often collected, transported and stored in a careless manner.
The core competencies of the police need to be strengthened and officers must be given training and resources to carry out their work, lawyers say. Standard operating procedures for conducting investigations need to be applied across the country, they add.
5. FAST-TRACK RAPE COURTS
One of the biggest impediments to gaining justice for rape victims is the lengthy duration of the trials, awyers say.
A lack of prosecutors, judges and courts mean that an average rape case can take five to 10 years to get to the judgment stage, leaving victims or other witnesses vulnerable to intimidation or unwilling to pursue such drawn-out court trials.
The Delhi gang rape has fuelled demands for special fast-track courts to deal with crimes against women, but some lawyers say not only are such courts costly but that swift justice does not always mean just justice.
Some legal experts add that India needs to invest more in the legal and judicial system and concentrate on hiring of thousands more judges and prosecutors.
6. WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM
Victims and witnesses can be intimidated by the accused, who in some cases is granted bail by the court, even though rape is a non-bailable offence.
As a result, victims can feel pressured into accepting illegal "out-of-court" settlements such as a small cash payment. In more extreme instances, the victim's family is pressurised into marrying their daughter to the accused.
Lawyers and activists say India needs an official witness protection program in place for victims of sexual assault and other serious offences.
Pizza, delivered with a side of attempted rape
There’s one thing that an Indian household has always had:
trustworthy strangers. Home delivery may be a modern term, but it’s been
part of the average Indian home for decades. Thanks to people like the
vegetable and fruit seller, the person who brings the ironed clothes and
the domestic help, an Indian household is an ecosystem composed
partially of strangers. In it, the food delivery man is a recent
entrant, but he has quickly become entrenched in the daily routine of
urban Indian households. Especially the pizza delivery boy.
According to a report by the National Restaurant Association of India, around 80% of consumers order in food at least twice a month at the minimum. Italian cuisine — which in home delivery terms consists mainly of pizza – is the most popular cuisine to be ‘ordered in’ in India. The pizza delivery boy is someone most people wait for anxiously and greet with a grin. He isn’t someone from whom we expect to need protection.
It’s this assumption that led to a young woman being assaulted and almost raped by a pizza delivery boy. A 17-year-old delivery boy returned after making an initial delivery on some pretext, and after attempting to rape the woman, bashed her head in, and then ran away.
Turns out, there is no official vetting process to decide delivery boys. Amar Jhunjhunwala, 46, who owns a fast food joint in Chembur that enjoys enthusiastic patronage from families in the neighbourhood, said, “I’ve never done a background check on a delivery boy, I have to admit. Why would I feel the need? And none of the other restaurant managers I know have done it either. It’s the most basic function of a restaurant.”
But can’t delivery boys at least be vetted as those who have been in the restaurant’s employ for a while? “It actually works the other way,” says Jhunjhunwala, who ran a burger joint in Andheri (East) for five years before starting his second restaurant in Chembur. “Boys work in delivery, and slowly make their way up to the kitchen and managerial roles. Of course, with this incident, I’m sure all restaurant owners are going to be very careful.”
Someone who won’t have a chance to be careful is the owner of Chovisum, the outlet whose delivery boy is guilty of assault and attempted rape. The owner, Swapnil Parab, has seen his business disappear since the incident. “The boy was a dropout who usually never makes deliveries,” Parab insisted in media reports in the Mumbai Mirror and the Hindustan Times. “It was just this time…he’s ruined my business.”
Is there any hope for a regulatory process to be enforced in the restaurant delivery business? According to a member of the National Restaurant Association of India, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, it’s almost impossible. “There are many neighbourhood restaurants which are not accounted for by us,” he said. But he admitted that more can be done to ensure a consumer’s safety. “An in-house vetting process should be non-negotiable.”
At present, the Food Safety and Standards regulations are the only rules by which Indian restaurants have to abide. These regulations cover aspects like salary and training of restaurant employees, but do not touch upon home deliveries, which are an increasingly important part of the Indian food industry.
Till then? Recently, after reading the report of the 25-year-old woman being assaulted by the Chovisum employee, a friend of mine and I tried to reconfigure the logistics of accepting home delivery.
“Should we keep the door-chain latched and pass the money through it?” she suggested.
“But a pizza won’t fit through the chain-gap,” I pointed out.
“I guess we could ask them to leave it outside, and take it when the delivery guy is done,” she said triumphantly.
So this could soon be the new guideline to prevent rape: skulk behind your door when receiving a delivery, wait till the sound of steps has faded away, then dart out quickly, grab your food and run back in.
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/pizza-delivered-with-a-side-of-attempted-rape-913057.html
According to a report by the National Restaurant Association of India, around 80% of consumers order in food at least twice a month at the minimum. Italian cuisine — which in home delivery terms consists mainly of pizza – is the most popular cuisine to be ‘ordered in’ in India. The pizza delivery boy is someone most people wait for anxiously and greet with a grin. He isn’t someone from whom we expect to need protection.
File photo of pizza. Image courtesy IBN Live
It’s this assumption that led to a young woman being assaulted and almost raped by a pizza delivery boy. A 17-year-old delivery boy returned after making an initial delivery on some pretext, and after attempting to rape the woman, bashed her head in, and then ran away.
Turns out, there is no official vetting process to decide delivery boys. Amar Jhunjhunwala, 46, who owns a fast food joint in Chembur that enjoys enthusiastic patronage from families in the neighbourhood, said, “I’ve never done a background check on a delivery boy, I have to admit. Why would I feel the need? And none of the other restaurant managers I know have done it either. It’s the most basic function of a restaurant.”
But can’t delivery boys at least be vetted as those who have been in the restaurant’s employ for a while? “It actually works the other way,” says Jhunjhunwala, who ran a burger joint in Andheri (East) for five years before starting his second restaurant in Chembur. “Boys work in delivery, and slowly make their way up to the kitchen and managerial roles. Of course, with this incident, I’m sure all restaurant owners are going to be very careful.”
Someone who won’t have a chance to be careful is the owner of Chovisum, the outlet whose delivery boy is guilty of assault and attempted rape. The owner, Swapnil Parab, has seen his business disappear since the incident. “The boy was a dropout who usually never makes deliveries,” Parab insisted in media reports in the Mumbai Mirror and the Hindustan Times. “It was just this time…he’s ruined my business.”
Is there any hope for a regulatory process to be enforced in the restaurant delivery business? According to a member of the National Restaurant Association of India, who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, it’s almost impossible. “There are many neighbourhood restaurants which are not accounted for by us,” he said. But he admitted that more can be done to ensure a consumer’s safety. “An in-house vetting process should be non-negotiable.”
At present, the Food Safety and Standards regulations are the only rules by which Indian restaurants have to abide. These regulations cover aspects like salary and training of restaurant employees, but do not touch upon home deliveries, which are an increasingly important part of the Indian food industry.
Till then? Recently, after reading the report of the 25-year-old woman being assaulted by the Chovisum employee, a friend of mine and I tried to reconfigure the logistics of accepting home delivery.
“Should we keep the door-chain latched and pass the money through it?” she suggested.
“But a pizza won’t fit through the chain-gap,” I pointed out.
“I guess we could ask them to leave it outside, and take it when the delivery guy is done,” she said triumphantly.
So this could soon be the new guideline to prevent rape: skulk behind your door when receiving a delivery, wait till the sound of steps has faded away, then dart out quickly, grab your food and run back in.
Source: http://www.firstpost.com/india/pizza-delivered-with-a-side-of-attempted-rape-913057.html
Two cops suspended for Gurgaon gang rape
GURGAON:
Two policemen were suspended Friday for the gang-rape of two
Delhi-based women in a moving car early Thursday, police said.
Balraj Singh, an assistant sub-inspector and in-charge of MG Road police post and head constable Dinesh Kumar were suspended for negligence of duty. They were on duty when the two women were raped in the car.
Police said that when the victims informed the police control room about the incident early Thursday, Kumar failed to convey the message to Singh as he did not have his cellphone number.
Kumar was suspended for not giving his cellphone number to the police post.
Two Delhi-based women aged 25 and 27 were gang raped here in a moving car while going home from a pub.
The women had hired a car outside Sahara Mall to go to Tughlaqabad in south Delhi. The driver picked up two other men. The women were gang-raped on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road while four friends of the accused followed in another vehicle, police said.
The women were dumped on Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, from where they contacted police.
The five accused are cab drivers and were arrested Thursday. Another accused was arrested Friday while one is absconding.
Balraj Singh, an assistant sub-inspector and in-charge of MG Road police post and head constable Dinesh Kumar were suspended for negligence of duty. They were on duty when the two women were raped in the car.
Police said that when the victims informed the police control room about the incident early Thursday, Kumar failed to convey the message to Singh as he did not have his cellphone number.
Kumar was suspended for not giving his cellphone number to the police post.
Two Delhi-based women aged 25 and 27 were gang raped here in a moving car while going home from a pub.
The women had hired a car outside Sahara Mall to go to Tughlaqabad in south Delhi. The driver picked up two other men. The women were gang-raped on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road while four friends of the accused followed in another vehicle, police said.
The women were dumped on Gurgaon-Faridabad Road, from where they contacted police.
The five accused are cab drivers and were arrested Thursday. Another accused was arrested Friday while one is absconding.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Two-cops-suspended-for-Gurgaon-gang-rape/articleshow/20819494.cms
Two sentenced to death for rape and murder
NAGPUR:
Seven years after a 19-year-old girl from Kalmeshwar was raped and
murdered in a gruesome manner, the court on Friday sentenced the
perpetrators — two hardened criminals — to the gallows. Rakesh Kamble (25), a resident of Gaurakshan slums in Wardha, and Amarsing Thakur
(27), from Bajrang Nagar in city, were convicted for kidnapping,
murder, and rape of Kanchan Meshram, a resident of Lonara slums in
Kalmeshwar on December 18, 2005.
These two join seven others in the 'death penalty' club of Nagpur court over the last five years.
Looking at the past criminal record of the accused duo, including fleeing from police custody, the third district and sessions judge Vibha Ingle had no hesitation in putting the dastardly act under "rarest of rare" category. "They be hanged by neck till dead," the court mentioned while reading out an operative order in the packed courtroom.
Apart from the capital punishment, the duo was awarded lifer for gang rape, 20 years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping for murder and another 10 years for criminal intimidation and trespassing into house at night. They were also fined Rs 22,000 on various counts. All the jail terms will run concurrently, the court ordered.
However, the duo was acquitted of charges under the Arms Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Citing testimony of 19 witnesses, including the girl's parents, brother and other villagers, assistant public prosecutor (APP) Kalpana Pande strongly advocated the maximum punishment, contending that the accused were serial offenders and showed no signs of reformation.
Security was tight inside and outside the courtroom, considering the fact that the accused duo had a history of fleeing from custody and had created trouble every time they were brought for a hearing. Even Sadar PI Rajratan Bansod was personally present. There was no remorse on the faces of the convicts when the verdict was announced and they even threatened media persons with dire consequences.
The night of horror
Pande said the history-sheeter duo were friends with a cousin of the deceased and used to tease her. A few days before the incident, Kanchan had even rapped Rakesh for indecent behaviour and thrown a slipper at him. An enraged Rakesh then decided to teach her a lesson. He barged into the girl's small hut with Amarsing at about 3am, when she was sleeping with her parents and brother. Both were armed with knives and a country-made revolver.
Sensing trouble, Kanchan's mother signalled her to escape. She ran away from home and took shelter under the bed in her uncle's house. However, the goons entered by breaking open the front door and dragged her out. Her parents and other villagers tried their best to stop them, but the goons brandished their weapons to keep them at bay while taking her away.
Next morning, Kanchan's naked body was found at a nearby farm with 14 injuries, including stab marks and scratches on her private parts. Her blood stained clothes were lying all over the farm and blood was found splattered at many places, providing ample testimony of the spine chilling torment she underwent. The post mortem report confirmed her rape and murder.
The accused had fled to an unknown place after committing the crime. After a complaint was lodged at Kalmeshwar police, Rakesh was arrested at Khamgaon in Buldhana on June 6, 2006, six months after the incident. However, it took over five years for the police to nab the other accused Amarsing on May 29, 2005. In fact, he was arrested by Gwalior police for some other offence and was brought to the city for this case.
: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Two-sentenced-to-death-for-rape-and-murder/articleshow/20823395.cms
These two join seven others in the 'death penalty' club of Nagpur court over the last five years.
Looking at the past criminal record of the accused duo, including fleeing from police custody, the third district and sessions judge Vibha Ingle had no hesitation in putting the dastardly act under "rarest of rare" category. "They be hanged by neck till dead," the court mentioned while reading out an operative order in the packed courtroom.
Apart from the capital punishment, the duo was awarded lifer for gang rape, 20 years rigorous imprisonment for kidnapping for murder and another 10 years for criminal intimidation and trespassing into house at night. They were also fined Rs 22,000 on various counts. All the jail terms will run concurrently, the court ordered.
However, the duo was acquitted of charges under the Arms Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Citing testimony of 19 witnesses, including the girl's parents, brother and other villagers, assistant public prosecutor (APP) Kalpana Pande strongly advocated the maximum punishment, contending that the accused were serial offenders and showed no signs of reformation.
Security was tight inside and outside the courtroom, considering the fact that the accused duo had a history of fleeing from custody and had created trouble every time they were brought for a hearing. Even Sadar PI Rajratan Bansod was personally present. There was no remorse on the faces of the convicts when the verdict was announced and they even threatened media persons with dire consequences.
The night of horror
Pande said the history-sheeter duo were friends with a cousin of the deceased and used to tease her. A few days before the incident, Kanchan had even rapped Rakesh for indecent behaviour and thrown a slipper at him. An enraged Rakesh then decided to teach her a lesson. He barged into the girl's small hut with Amarsing at about 3am, when she was sleeping with her parents and brother. Both were armed with knives and a country-made revolver.
Sensing trouble, Kanchan's mother signalled her to escape. She ran away from home and took shelter under the bed in her uncle's house. However, the goons entered by breaking open the front door and dragged her out. Her parents and other villagers tried their best to stop them, but the goons brandished their weapons to keep them at bay while taking her away.
Next morning, Kanchan's naked body was found at a nearby farm with 14 injuries, including stab marks and scratches on her private parts. Her blood stained clothes were lying all over the farm and blood was found splattered at many places, providing ample testimony of the spine chilling torment she underwent. The post mortem report confirmed her rape and murder.
The accused had fled to an unknown place after committing the crime. After a complaint was lodged at Kalmeshwar police, Rakesh was arrested at Khamgaon in Buldhana on June 6, 2006, six months after the incident. However, it took over five years for the police to nab the other accused Amarsing on May 29, 2005. In fact, he was arrested by Gwalior police for some other offence and was brought to the city for this case.
: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/Two-sentenced-to-death-for-rape-and-murder/articleshow/20823395.cms
6-yr-old battles for life after rape
Barasat: Barely three weeks after the brutal rape and murder of a 20-year-old in Barasat'sKamduni, a 6-year-old girl in the same North 24-Parganas town is battling for her life in hospital after being allegedly raped by a 52-year-old man on Thursday evening.
Several stitches were administered to her private parts. The accused and her neighbour, Majid Ali Middyar, has been arrested. Demanding his death sentence, more than one hundred people launched an agitation in front of the Barasat police station on Friday.
The incident comes barely three weeks after the Barasat's Kamduni case in which a 20-year-old college girl was brutally gang raped and murdered by at least eight persons. While the Kamduni incident stirred across the state and even hit the all-India news headlines, but the court trial has not started yet as the CID already missing the chief minister Mamata Banerjee's 15 days deadline, are yet to submit the chargesheet against the accused in Barasat court till on Friday.
At around 7.30pm on Thursday when the girl, a Class-I student of a local primary school, was standing alone in front of her house at Ramakrishnapur near Barasat's Kajipara, Majid - a truck driver - lured her with chocolate and took her to his home. The girl, daughter of a daily wage earner, agreed to go to Majid's house as she also wanted to watch TV.
"After reaching home, Majid sent her daughter-in-law to shop and then gagged the girl and raped her. The girl somehow managed to remove the clothes from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams, a neighbour rushed to Majid's home," alleged a local. took the girl to his home, his eldest daughter-in-law was only in the house. He also sent her to a local shop to buy something. Then the monster tortured the little girl brutally even after gagged her with a piece of cloths. He continued the torture her sexually till she somehow managed to remove the cloth from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams a woman, a next door neighbour rushed to the Majid's residence to find him torturing the little girl sexually," a local said.
Majid then threatened the woman with dire consequences if she did not leave the place immediately. But the woman started to scream drawing the attention of others in the area, who later roughed up Majid before handing him over to police. also screamed for drawing attention of other locals who rushed to the house and caught the Majid while he tried to flee the spot. Then the angry locals beat him up before handing him over to the police.
The girl was rushed to the Barasat district hospital. According to a hospital sources, the girl was still in critical. "While she was taken to the hospital on Thursday evening she was still bleeding profusely. The doctors had to administer at least five stitches to her private parts. She was recovering slowly," a nurse of the hospital said who was on duty in emergency ward on Friday evening.
On Friday morning the locals gathered in front of the Barasat police station and demanded the accused to be hanged. "Those criminals like Majid deserve only death soon after committing the brutal rape on a little girl. But we have no faith on the police as they hardy take proper action against those culprits even after arresting them and the trial is delayed like recent Kamduni case," said Jharna Bibi, who rescued the girl from the Majid's custody.
The father of the girl said that he was not at his home while Majid lured her daughter to his house. "I was at outside for my job. But I got the news from a local with whom I met there. I rushed to my house while my daughter was already taken to the hospital. Majid, was my neighbour and he lives just after two houses from my residence. He used to come to my house and my daughter called him Majid Dadu. I want him only to be hanged," the father said.
The girl's kin have lodged a complaint of rape with Barasat police on Thursday night. Police, however, registered the case under section PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012, IPC 4.
"We have arrested Majid on Thursday and produced him in the Barasat court.
The case has been registered for sexual assault on a child according to PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012 Act," said Bhaskar Mukherjee, additional SP, North 24 Parganas. Majid was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.
Several stitches were administered to her private parts. The accused and her neighbour, Majid Ali Middyar, has been arrested. Demanding his death sentence, more than one hundred people launched an agitation in front of the Barasat police station on Friday.
The incident comes barely three weeks after the Barasat's Kamduni case in which a 20-year-old college girl was brutally gang raped and murdered by at least eight persons. While the Kamduni incident stirred across the state and even hit the all-India news headlines, but the court trial has not started yet as the CID already missing the chief minister Mamata Banerjee's 15 days deadline, are yet to submit the chargesheet against the accused in Barasat court till on Friday.
At around 7.30pm on Thursday when the girl, a Class-I student of a local primary school, was standing alone in front of her house at Ramakrishnapur near Barasat's Kajipara, Majid - a truck driver - lured her with chocolate and took her to his home. The girl, daughter of a daily wage earner, agreed to go to Majid's house as she also wanted to watch TV.
"After reaching home, Majid sent her daughter-in-law to shop and then gagged the girl and raped her. The girl somehow managed to remove the clothes from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams, a neighbour rushed to Majid's home," alleged a local. took the girl to his home, his eldest daughter-in-law was only in the house. He also sent her to a local shop to buy something. Then the monster tortured the little girl brutally even after gagged her with a piece of cloths. He continued the torture her sexually till she somehow managed to remove the cloth from her mouth and screamed in pain. On hearing her screams a woman, a next door neighbour rushed to the Majid's residence to find him torturing the little girl sexually," a local said.
Majid then threatened the woman with dire consequences if she did not leave the place immediately. But the woman started to scream drawing the attention of others in the area, who later roughed up Majid before handing him over to police. also screamed for drawing attention of other locals who rushed to the house and caught the Majid while he tried to flee the spot. Then the angry locals beat him up before handing him over to the police.
The girl was rushed to the Barasat district hospital. According to a hospital sources, the girl was still in critical. "While she was taken to the hospital on Thursday evening she was still bleeding profusely. The doctors had to administer at least five stitches to her private parts. She was recovering slowly," a nurse of the hospital said who was on duty in emergency ward on Friday evening.
On Friday morning the locals gathered in front of the Barasat police station and demanded the accused to be hanged. "Those criminals like Majid deserve only death soon after committing the brutal rape on a little girl. But we have no faith on the police as they hardy take proper action against those culprits even after arresting them and the trial is delayed like recent Kamduni case," said Jharna Bibi, who rescued the girl from the Majid's custody.
The father of the girl said that he was not at his home while Majid lured her daughter to his house. "I was at outside for my job. But I got the news from a local with whom I met there. I rushed to my house while my daughter was already taken to the hospital. Majid, was my neighbour and he lives just after two houses from my residence. He used to come to my house and my daughter called him Majid Dadu. I want him only to be hanged," the father said.
The girl's kin have lodged a complaint of rape with Barasat police on Thursday night. Police, however, registered the case under section PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012, IPC 4.
"We have arrested Majid on Thursday and produced him in the Barasat court.
The case has been registered for sexual assault on a child according to PCSO (protection of child from sexual offence), 2012 Act," said Bhaskar Mukherjee, additional SP, North 24 Parganas. Majid was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/6-yr-old-battles-for-life-after-rape/articleshow/20823908.cms
Gurgaon gang rape: Main rape accused arrested, but ground reality unchanged
GURGAON: Gurgaon
police on Friday nabbed the key accused in the Thursday early morning
rape in a moving car, bringing the total number of arrests in the case
to six. The accused has been identified as Dharambir, and it was he who planned the rape to get value for the Rs 10,000 he had paid to the two victims and also raped one of them.
The Toyota Corolla Altis car in which the two women were raped by the accused has been retrieved and the five persons who were arrested on Thursday were sent in judicial custody on Friday. Dharmabir had been trying to get to girls over the past week but when he couldn't he got a friend to lure them to get into his car and then carried out the rape of the victims. Police are currently interrogating him about the whereabouts of last of the seven accused, Vikram, who is at large.
"Dharambir, 27, is a native of Dor Kalan village near Narnaul and used to work as a taxi driver. We recovered the Corolla Altis car, which was used in the rape. We found out during the interrogation that the accused had raped the victims without using contraceptives. There is a possibility of getting strong biological evidence against the accused from the car," an investigating officer said.
The victims of the horrific incident were two Delhi-based women who had hired a private cab a little after 12.30am on Thursday after finishing their work in a pub. The two residents of Tughlakabad had left Empire Club in Metropolitan Mall on MG Road at 12 midnight. Sources said that the two were entry "escorts" and regulars at the club for three days in a week and would help boys to gain the cheaper "couple entry" and avoid the expensive "stag entry".
On the same day police arrested five of accused, identified as Devender, Parmod, Harish Khan alias Nisar, Satish and Devinder. One of the accused is a native of Mewat district while the other four belong to Nangal Peepa village in Mahendergarh distirct. An Indica car has been retrieved from them. One of the two victims, who is 27 years old, told police that they had come out of Empire Club a little after midnight and reached in front of Club-18 in an auto. Since their taxi driver had not reached in time to pick them up, they hired a Toyota Altis car for Rs 300 in front of Vipul Agora Mall building.
The Toyota Corolla Altis car in which the two women were raped by the accused has been retrieved and the five persons who were arrested on Thursday were sent in judicial custody on Friday. Dharmabir had been trying to get to girls over the past week but when he couldn't he got a friend to lure them to get into his car and then carried out the rape of the victims. Police are currently interrogating him about the whereabouts of last of the seven accused, Vikram, who is at large.
"Dharambir, 27, is a native of Dor Kalan village near Narnaul and used to work as a taxi driver. We recovered the Corolla Altis car, which was used in the rape. We found out during the interrogation that the accused had raped the victims without using contraceptives. There is a possibility of getting strong biological evidence against the accused from the car," an investigating officer said.
The victims of the horrific incident were two Delhi-based women who had hired a private cab a little after 12.30am on Thursday after finishing their work in a pub. The two residents of Tughlakabad had left Empire Club in Metropolitan Mall on MG Road at 12 midnight. Sources said that the two were entry "escorts" and regulars at the club for three days in a week and would help boys to gain the cheaper "couple entry" and avoid the expensive "stag entry".
On the same day police arrested five of accused, identified as Devender, Parmod, Harish Khan alias Nisar, Satish and Devinder. One of the accused is a native of Mewat district while the other four belong to Nangal Peepa village in Mahendergarh distirct. An Indica car has been retrieved from them. One of the two victims, who is 27 years old, told police that they had come out of Empire Club a little after midnight and reached in front of Club-18 in an auto. Since their taxi driver had not reached in time to pick them up, they hired a Toyota Altis car for Rs 300 in front of Vipul Agora Mall building.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Gurgaon-gang-rape-Main-rape-accused-arrested-but-ground-reality-unchanged/articleshow/20823417.cms?
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
New Anti-Rape Laws In India Fails to Address Root Causes
‘Opportunity Lost’ As New Anti-Rape Laws In India Fail to Address Root Causes – UN Expert
New York, May 3 2013 - Laws recently passed in India to prevent and prosecute rape and other sex crimes “do not go far enough,” a United Nations independent expert said today, lamenting that the legislation failed to address systemic gender inequalities in Indian society.
“The opportunity to establish a substantive and specific equality and non-discrimination rights legislative framework for women, to address de facto inequality and discrimination, and to protect and prevent against all forms of violence against women, was lost,” said Rashida Manjoo, the Special Rapporteur on violence against women.
Just back from a 10-say visit to India, she said that while the reforms were commendable, they did not fully reflect the recommendations in the report produced by the Verma Committee – named after former Chief Justice Jagdish Sharan Verma – which was set up in the wake of the death of a 23-year-old woman whose gang-rape in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests.
The report made a series of recommendations to tackle violence against women in India, and UN human rights officials urged the Government to follow through with them. Ms. Manjoo reiterated those calls, pressing authorities to address the multiple and intersecting inequalities and discrimination that women face.
“My mandate has consistently voiced the view that the failure in response and prevention measures stems from a Government’s inability and/or unwillingness to acknowledge and address the core structural causes of violence against women,” she said, adding: “The unfortunate reality is that the rights of many women in India continue to be violated, with impunity as the norm.”
Violence again against women and girls in India manifests itself in numerous ways, including domestic violence, caste-based discrimination, dowry-related deaths, witch-hunting, sexual violence, conflict-related sexual violence, and forced marriages.
During her visit, the independent expert met with Government authorities and civil society in New Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu, among other regions.
Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back, in an unpaid capacity, on specific human rights themes. Ms. Manjoo will present her findings to the Council in June 2014.
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
SOURCE: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1305/S00126/new-anti-rape-laws-in-india-fail-to-address-root-causes.htm
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