No More Of Rape Today And Marry Tomorrow.
Have you heard of the term blood
money? Take a guess and no, it’s not that Leo Di Caprio movie about African
diamonds. The word blood money I am talking about refers to the money paid in a
criminal case by the accused person’s family to the victims to persuade them to
withdraw the case in exchange for the money. And no it’s not illegal according
to the law. In fact it has been a long followed tradition right from antiquity
and is still actively practiced by many countries worldwide.
One of the best kept secrets of
Indian diplomacy is that whenever a PIO- a person of Indian origin is in
serious trouble- think head-chopping trouble- in one of the gulf emirates - the
Indian government acting through its embassy helps out the accused by paying
out Blood money to the relatives of the affected person and asks them not to
oppose the pardon requested from the ruler. This works both ways as it not only
helps the Indian citizen to gain clemency under the Sharia laws but also
provides an excuse for the Emir to officially pardon the guilty from the
harsher punishments prescribed under Islamic law and thereby prevent ugly
international incidents and misunderstandings between nations.
Now if you think that this goes on
only in absolute monarchies like the Emirates, you would be surprised to learn
that the same goes on even in our country too under the auspices of the Indian
Penal Codes. When the victim and the accused patch up between themselves and
close the case the process is called compounding under our law. But as usual
the law adds quite a few caveats to the compounding between persons privately
and rarely winks and let’s go. The law, if you didn’t realize it before, is
quite the jealous mistress, it never gives up easily what is its due and if
compounding (between the affected and the accused) looks like cheating the law
of the satisfaction of punishment then the law refuses to accept the private
agreement and grant its blessing to it.
But it’s not always clear cut- as
always there are two sides to everything and its worth taking a deeper look.
The commonest of these patch ups between the two affected parties to bypass the
law is seen in Defamation cases, in Adultery cases and hold your breath, in
Rape cases. Are you surprised? Read on then.
Let’s take the most common example
- of defamation cases where one person files a complaint in court that someone
else has spread ill-truths and rumors about him thereby hurting him badly
mentally, professionally or financially. When the person who felt that his good
name has been spoiled accepts some money (or even a public apology) in
compensation for the loss of his good name and withdraws his complaint then the
case automatically collapses. I am sure everyone has seen this in newspaper
articles where the next day’s paper prints a retraction and apology of the
previous day’s news
The next most commonest of these
private agreements is seen in adultery cases, where the husband files a divorce
case against the wife and a criminal case for adultery against the
"other" man involved- for robbing him off his honour by having sex
with his legally wedded wife. This is because under indian law only the other
man can be sent to prison for the crime of seducing an innocent(?) woman while
the wife can escape any consequences as a woman is not held responsible for her
actions. This forces the husband to file a criminal case against his wife's
lover in the hope that the woman will agree to do anything to get her lover out
of prison and once the wife confesses to her adulterous behavior and agrees to
sign the divorce the criminal case against her illegal lover is withdrawn by
the husband and the newly divorced woman and her lover go off to start a new
life together.
But in all these cases there is
not much public attention and they often escape media scrutiny. But rape is a
different kettle of fish and when such a compromise -between the rapist and the
rape victim- happens in rape cases there is often a huge public outcry and it
is turned into a national issue. The news media has been regularly reporting on
recent Supreme Court judgments where the judges refused to drop the rape case
even after the women herself wanted the courts to excuse the man -after the man
promised to marry her. But our judges would have none of it- they stuck to
their stand saying that the law has been broken and regardless of what the
victim feels the punishment for breaking the law cannot be avoided. There is no
question of the victim’s opinions influencing the law of the law which states
quite clearly that a rape is an offense against society and any violation of
such law will lead to chaos in society as people might take up matters in their
own hands.
Which is the most sensible
approach by our courts- for otherwise our courts will turn into a legal version
of our filmy Panchayats where the headman of the village advises the woman to
regain her lost honor by marrying the man who robbed her of her chastity. This
is based on the premise that a woman who has had sex once with a man is now soiled
goods or in the words of one of our esteemed members of parliament "zinda
laash or living corpse" and no one else will marry her and she is now at
the mercy of her rapist. Sex (even unwilling) is not accepted as just a bodily
act but made the very cornerstone of Indian culture and a raped woman is
thought to have lost her respect in the eyes of society.
It is this kind of thinking which
makes many men believe that they can just a rape a girl, any girl that they
desire and society will do the rest for them- marry of the girl to her rapist
because he has by default become her husband after the rape for which man in
his right senses would marry any girl who has had intercourse with another man?
This Stone Age attitude of equating sex with marriage has been fostered by our
stupid films where even ruffians who rape the heroine are turned into hero's
because the heroine is left with no other choice except to marry him and reform
him.
There was an execrable Tamil film
called "Pudhiya Padhai?" in the early 90's where the hero
(anti-hero?) Parthiban rapes the heroine Sita on the eve of her wedding and the
next day she stops the wedding saying she is soiled forever and then she goes
off to the slum to live with her rapist saying that she considers him her
husband as he was the first one to touch her body. The film was of course a big
hit because our audiences love such "progressive" films and encourage
them. And this is exactly the kind of stupidity which will no longer wash for
once a rape case is filed the law will take its own course despite the victims
"forgiveness" of her assaulter. The recent Supreme Court Judgments
have removed all these loopholes of escape and the case will henceforth be only
between the society and the rapist and not between the raped person and her
rapist.
For the sake of keeping peace in
society certain crimes like rape or murder have to be taken to their bitter
end. And the criminals have to be severely punished without regard to
individual feelings or decisions. Many times the victims or their families may
be pressured by money power or societal disapproval to withdraw cases. Even
during the court case the witnesses may lie or even the victim may deny
everything. And the law which goes by the maxim of “no innocent must be
punished even if guilty is allowed to escape” has to give the benefit of the
doubt to the accused and release him. In cases where the guilt is proven very
clearly in public mind (by the media) but the evidence is not there and the
guilty escape easily there is a huge public back-lash – like in the delhi rape
case. This will make our bleeding heart politicians to pass more and more
ridiculously stricter laws which will affect even innocent persons who are falsely
accused and caught in rape cases.
For example, in certain cases the rape
laws were being exploited by women who were disappointed in love to take
revenge on their lovers as the jilted women used to file false rape cases to
force men to marry them even if they both had consensual sex or even casual one
night stands. Simply the threat of being sent to jail for seven years on a
false rape charge made men feel that marriage was the lesser evil and they used
to tie the knot to get the lady to withdraw the rape case. But all that has
changed with the recent judgment of the Supreme Court on rape cases. Even if
the lady states later that she longer wishes for the guy to be punished the
courts cannot be fooled as they will either send the guy to prison for the rape
or they will punish the woman for filing a false complaint. And so the threat
of filing false cases can no longer work, which is a welcome step.
Now that the recent changes have
been made to the rape laws, we can rest assured that the law will make sure
that rapists get their just desserts. Or so we hope. For this is India. Here we
take the good with the bad and get on with our lives.
P.S. All opinions expressed in
this blogpost are personal opinions of a layman and are neither legal opinions
nor legal advice. For more authentic information please talk to a qualified
legal professional.
P.P.S. I am especially grateful to my friend Oldtimer Ottee or as he is popularly known in the blogosphere - The Visitor/The Veil - for sharing the Supreme Court article with me and prompting me to write this post. Thanks to you Ottee....
