Outrage...

This is a report from the Times Of India website - A piece I originally read in the paper itself some time last week.. Anyway , it shocked the daylights out of me...

Read on..

MUMBAI: Five days ago, sessions court judge Laxmi Rao convicted a man to seven years' rigorous imprisonment for raping and kidnapping a minor but released him on probation after 45 days in custody. On Thursday, Judge Rao did it again. Suresh Vanse, a resident of Matibai Chawl in Borivli, was pronounced guilty of raping a 14-year-old girl but sentenced to imprisonment "till the rising of the court''-or, effectively, for just one day.

The logic behind the diminished sentences is the judge's ostensible concern for the 'humanitarian' angle. Both Vanse and Paramram Sarane, the first offender, were the sole bread-winners of families and had a large number of dependents, noted the two judgments. Interestingly, in July the judge had sentenced a woman convicted of seducing a young boy to five years' rigorous imprisonment.

Vanse, the offender in Thursday's case, raped his 14-year-old domestic help in 1992. He cajoled her into keeping mum by promising her that he would marry her soon. It was only when the girl became visibly pregnant that her father, a handcart puller, lodged a complaint with the Samata Nagar police station on September 7, 1992. The subsequent medical examination proved that the victim's age was somewhere between "14 and 15 years". Vanse even tried to get the child aborted but doctors refused on account of the girl's frail condition. When the case came up for trial in the sessions court, said public prosecutor Lata Chheda, the victim testified that Vanse had had sexual intercourse with her.

Vanse was ordered to pay Rs 50,000 in compensation which he promptly did on Thursday. Of this, Rs 25,000 is to be given to the victim and the other half to the girl child she gave birth to in 1993. The victim, who's from an extremely poor family in Sindhudurg has been in Mumbai since the incident, earning a living by doing menial household chores. Her 12-year-old daughter now lives in Sindhudurg with her grandmother.

Taken from the Times Of India.

Here

There isn't a day that passes when there are'nt several reports of rape or murder in the newspaper.And over time , we have become desensitised to it. We just click our tongues , shake our heads in sadness for a second and move on to the sports section... In the newspaper, also do we read , of the government's many screw-ups and scandals - Nothing seems to faze us anymore. For the Innocent to be wrongfully accused - we are accustomed to , For the guilty to manipulate the system and be acquitted we accept with practiced equanimity... But this is different. Please tell me that you feel my outrage... Atleast in some measure.

I do not claim to understand the criminal law system and its intricasies as it is prevalent in India. (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) . I realise, also, that the reason we appoint judges and allow them the liberty of pronouncing sentences at their discretion is because we believe that each case is unique and for a single law to cater inflexibly to thousands upon thousands of accused, would probably be unfair or to be more precise ,unjust. So, the law suggests a socially acceptable punishment - which by and large the judges are expected to mete out. Except when they feel that there are special circumstances which require either that the law be altered or that the accused receive a degree of exemption because of special circumstances.

And hence we hand pick men and women who are supposed to

1) To comprehend the prevalent law in all its intricasies

2) To have the stomach to make tough 'judgements' (to be corrupt or not to be..) and the mind to discern and be fair...

because they have been picked for the aforementioned qualities- We , rightfully , expect them to be a fair minded set of people with a keen sense of justice...

If you are laughing at my naivete , or if you think that I can't imagine how awry a state , the system of appointing judgeships , really is in , I will have you know otherwise. The 'education' I have received has ensured that I am sufficiently cynical about the State as an institution of welfare. But this is not about the practiced cynicism that we so conveniently hide behind. It's so easy to shrug one's shoulders and end the discussion by saying something flippant like "Someone must have been bribed" or "everyone these days is corrupt" or better yet "the woman must be off her rocker".

But what happens to the kid that got raped - What about her?? She's lived long enough in the knowledge that she has been wronged. Then the matter is made public and her humiliation becomes multi-fold. She endures the ensuing trial with as much dignity as she can muster. And finally, the man who raped her is convicted.

The system has pronounced him GUILTY. No doubts.

Imagine, if you will, how she might have felt at that point. Relief coursing through her veins-Exhaustion-A simple longing to just get back to some semblance of normalcy.
And then the bomb is dropped. A system she probably did'nt have faith in to begin with, that has given her some hope by convicting the bastard , cruelly snatches it right back. The man that violated her most basic of rights has to endure no more than a day's imprisonment. And oh.. On what grounds.Surely , nothing is going to change the fact that she was raped , but at the least , would'nt you think , that she hopes the judicial system will not make a mockery of itself and her by issuing , in effect , a one day sentence for a crime which is punishable by seven years.

Where is one day of custody in comparison with 2555 of rigorous imprisonment???

Special circumstances- Now, I have no frame of reference as to the different circumstances that merit a reduced sentence. Off the top of my head , I can only think of a mental illness or a serious physical illness. Even those cases are quite debatable - but let's not go there.

The issue at hand is simply this : What message does this judgment send out??

Is the Honourable Judge trying to tell us 'junta' , that if you are a father , and earn far too little to feed the brood that you have brought into this world - and you take it into your head to rape/kidnap/murder anyone(let alone a minor) and you actually go through with it - Then the law may be considerate to you simply because you happened to not comprehend the benefits of family planning and you let your financial affairs remain in disarray??

This sounds like one of the tax reductable items. Why don't we advertise it??
Have lots of dependents , rape someone and you can get away with it by paying a Rs. 50,000 one-time downpayment and a day in jail. But, sorry, if you are a more sensible and thoughtful member of the middle class you don't get the same concessions.(If you are thinking , why would a sensible and thoughtful member of the middle class commit the gruesome act of rape - Don't be so hasty in dismissing the thought - Sensible and thoughtful people can do be pretty horrible things too. Presumptions are dangerous and stereotypes constantly break the mould every second) Ofcourse the really rich and the really poor can't be in the scope of this discussion- they are quite simply, above the law. The really rich , because of the power that money buys. The really poor , because they have nothing to lose.

Back to the report - Notice if you will , the reporters mention of the judge's previous indictment of a woman. "Interestingly, in July the judge had sentenced a woman convicted of seducing a young boy to five years' rigorous imprisonment.". But I suppose , we can only speculate as to what he might have been alluding to. I seriously wonder , how the judge could , in all conscience (but then i'm making a big assumption here- that she has one) make such a seemingly ridiculous and obviously gross violation of the justice owed to the victim.

I'm afraid ,I don't seem to be able to be as caustic as I really want to be -I think it has something to do with the fact that I am simply too flabbergasted - The magnitude of the offense it does to my sense of justice. You come out all guns blazing , aching to demolish an argument that is seemingly flawed. Then you realise, that you have made a presumption in assuming there is any argument to demolish. That can only be if there is some semblance of logic or reason present . (If there is , for the life of me , I fail to see it...)So at the end of the day , we have a man who has committed a gruesome act - the highest level of human rights violation - And he gets away virtually scot free.

It makes one think...and despair. And as a woman , I guess I am a lot more cognisant of how this might affect me...

So tomorrow , if it happens , that the neighbour's creepy chauffeur or the weird watchman, or just any old tom - takes it into his head to rape me or someone I know and by some miracle manages to get caught , goes through the system and ends up being convicted , then ofcourse , I should understand when he won't be put behind bars , because while he was raping me , he forgot that he had seven mouths to feed back home , and the judicial system must give him allowances for the fact that he has a lot of dependents depending on him and a bad memory. For the rest of you rapist bastards, too bad... who asked you not to inundate this already
over-populated country with your progeny before you decide to rape us???

I repeat my point... I know.. It is my indignance and consternation at play..and even if it serves no purpose other than to vent .... I need to emphasise how ridiculous this seems to me...

And so finally, after screaming ourselves hoarse about the "injustice of it all" , where does all this leave us? What faith can we have in such a system? Is feeling outraged and sorry , for the poor girl and the thousands of others like her, all we can do? Will tomorrow be another day of mockery?

P.S : If someone who happens to read this , can shed any light on this seemingly inexplicable 'virtual condonement of sin' , I would appreciate it if you could enlighten me.. I do truly want to understand this...And perhaps , I don't know a lot there is to know...about the law and this world.