Marital Rape Epidemic in India

Off late there has been a lot of discussion on Marital Rape. Rape is defined as, ‘Any Sexual intercourse without ones consent’. Rape is a deplorable act, within marriage or outside of it. Before we delve deeper into the discussion on rape, lets understand some statistics on it:

As we can see in the chart above whopping over 60% of all report rape cases are frivolous and donot stand the test of trial. Even organizations working for the cause of women have realized the gravity and extent of false accusations of rape. They have stated that over 53% cases filed were found to be false and ‘revenge was the motive of filing false cases’.

Presently in India, one false rape accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourse for defending himself. The woman gets a public prosecutor (ie. an attorney appointed by the state to fight the case on her behalf). There is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman primarily because of –

• Her identity being protected, therefore filing a frivolous complaint has no public backlash. Whereas the accused’s life is destroyed due to her frivolous complaint. No wonder the Indian Courts have stated that the victim of false case should be called a ‘rape case’ survivor
• As a public prosecutor is provided to the woman, there is no financial drain on her resources
• There are hardly any consequences for filing a false rape case.

Let us now understand the problems in the current rape laws:

1. As shown in the data above it has become increasingly easy to level a false complaint for rape.
2. There are no consequences for filing false complaints.
3. The falsely accused person stands to lose everything due to the false case
4. Men who are raped by women cannot file any complaint of rape. Their bodily integrity is not recognised by law

The need of the hour currently is to immediately amend the rape laws to:

1. Make them ‘Gender Neutral’, like in many other western countries where men can also file rape cases. As per a UK study substantial number of men were victims of rape.
2. Protecting the identity of the rape accused until the conviction, to protect him from media trials as there is a high probability that the case against him would be false as shown in the data above
3. Making the identity of the women public post trial, if the case if found to be frivolous, so as to prevent false cases being filed for ulterior motives
4. Compulsorily trying the woman for ‘malicious prosecution’ and ‘perjury’ for filing false complaint, and ruining the life of the ‘Rape Case Survivor’
5. Rehabilitation and compensation of ‘Rape Case Survivors’

Now as the foundation is clear, we can proceed to discussion on Marital Rape. The reasons put forward to pass a marital rape law are as under:

1. There are no Marital Rape Laws in India: This statement is false, as per The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 (DV Act), section 3, defines ‘Sexual Abuse’ to include any conduct of a sexual nature that abuses, humiliates, degrades or otherwise violates the dignity of woman. Therefore any woman subjected to sexual abuse such as marital rape can get orders under the DV Act.
2. Over 60% of Indian Women are subjected to Marital Rape: This is a generally quoted statistic that over 60% of Indian Women are subjected to marital rape. The base of this statistic is on a UNFPA report (Violence Against Women in India, 2004) which bases its comments on a report titled, Population Reports – Ending Violence Against Women, 1999 and this report bases its comments from a report Sexual violence within marriage: a case study of rural Uttar Pradesh, 1997. This study interviewed 115 women from a rural village in Uttar Pradesh. About 76 of these women knew nothing about sexuality during marriage. In most cases the first sexual encounter was characterized by male sexual coercion and female submission. This is being classified as Marital Rape epidemic in India.

Let’s understand the concerns in this report:

• The sample size is 115 rural women from Uttar Pradesh in 1997. This is not representative of the population of India and also is inappropriate be used after 20 years.
• The above women had no clue about sex at the time of marriage, therefore their husbands would have persuaded them to consummate the marriage which could have been classified as marital rape. The most logical transaction between the newly wed couple would have been:

“You’ll really enjoy it Mary.”

“Be careful, Patrick. Don’t.” No, you mustn’t.” “Oh. Oh. Not so hard.” “Do it gently. Oh yes, that’s better. Yes, that’s nice. Do it that way.”

3. Gender Neutral Rape and Marital Rape Laws: The proponents of marital rape law shy away on the request to make the law gender neutral. They know that majority of domestic violence across the world is initiated by women.  Making a gender neutral law would bring out all the atrocities faced by men at the hands of women in a domestic setting. Why are the proponents shying away from making a gender neutral law?
4. Strict provisions for False Accusations: Again the proponents are shying away from adding strict provisions for false accusation and consequences for filing a frivolous case. We have seen how grossly misused are the other women specific laws including the rape laws. Why do the proponents shy away from protecting the identity of the rape accused until the conviction to protect him from media trials?
5. Women do not lie about rape: This statement is completely false. As can be seen above majority of the rape cases are found to be frivolous / false. As per women’s organizations over 53% cases filed were found to be false and ‘revenge was the motive of filing false cases’. There have been cases where a 75 year old sick frail old man, who could not even stand straight was booked for raping a young lady in mid-thirties. The slapping the false rape was to merely extract money from the man. Another example of false case can be found here.
6. Jurisprudence Provisions: No discussion ever takes place on the detailed jurisprudence on marital rape laws, safeguards to be employed to protect the falsely accused and evidence requirements. A law without safeguard mechanisms is a bound to be bane on the society.

As we can see above the whole debate on marital rape is hollow as adequate protection is available for women from marital rape. It is the men who need protection from false cases, domestic violence and marital rape which is being conveniently brushed under the carpet.

 Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

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Chart data Source: NCRB – Frivolous Cases includes: a) Cases compounded or withdrawn, b) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law, c) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, d) cases withdrawn by the govt., and e) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation.

Sometimes a “sorry” is not enough… Then what is?

In simple English a sorry is defined as a feeling of sorrow, regret, or penitence. The important word here is, the realization, that the offense one has done is wrong, and due to which one has a feeling of ‘sorrow’. This deep distress or sorrow should engender a feeling of ‘regret’ which ought to lead to ‘repentance’, which is displaying the sorrow and setting things right. ‘Repentance’ involves a commitment to personal change and resolving to live a more responsible and humane life.

The word sorry is a very wide word, encompassing sorrow, regret, repentance and ultimately a change in the offender. We come to a question now, why such a topic? Why is ‘sorry’ not enough? The reason friends is that the process above is not followed. The person condoning the offense ought to condone only after repentance. For an offender to reach the stage of repentance, a feeling of sorrow should emanate from within, which would only happen if the offense is classified as such and treated as an offense.

Are we classifying offenses as offenses in society? I doubt! Let’s take a recent case of a woman raping a minor boy. First this act is not even classified as rape in law. Forceful sexual intercourse by the woman with a minor is termed by media as forceful physical relationship. Playing down the offense reduces it’s intensity and will never evoke the feeling of sorrow in the offender.

Then we come to the laws, forceful sexual intercourse with a male is not even defined as rape. It does not even find a place in the Indian Penal Code section 375. As per IPC, rape can only be committed by a man thereby absolving all women of this gruesome offense. So a woman who commits rape is not even an offender.

Then we have a special law for protecting children from sexual offenses, Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). In this sexual offenses are defined as penetrative sexual offence and non-penetrative sexual offence. The act of rape by a woman with a minor comes under the definition of non- penetrative sexual offence which has a very low prison term, thereby undermining the whole offense. (For the initiated, do read my article titled, To Rape a Minor or not…, Her Choice!, for a detailed analysis on the incident and Indian laws).

So now we come to the second part of the question, Then What? Then nothing, sorry is sufficient, it is us who have made it ineffective, it is us as a society who treat women offenders with kid gloves, leave them with a slap on the hand. No wonder the situation has spiralled to alarming proportions and serious crimes by women have increased exponentially (refer to my previous article titled ‘The Fairer Criminals’) over the past decade.

Still we propose gender biased laws and cannot truly embrace ‘equality’. If this is what we would do, off course people will ask questions Sometimes a “sorry” is not enough… Then what is? #sorry. (Written for Indiblogger’s #indispire)

Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

To Rape a Minor or not…, Her Choice!

I just came across this article titled, Woman booked for ‘raping’ son’s teen pal, wherein it is stated that she spiked the minor boy’ss drink and then raped him (oh! Sorry, rape is a wrong word here. She forced the minor boy to keep physical relationship, as definition of rape does not include forceful intercourse with a male). She also made a video recording of the incident and used to threaten the minor boy with the video recording who was just 16 years of age. It is stated that she also threatened the boy with filing of a false rape complaint against him.

Due to the ordeal, the boy lost interest in studies and was unable to mix up in the family, his health deteriorated and his behaviour changed. The news article states that the probe is currently on, no information of arrest of the accused woman is mentioned.

A few questions that come to mind are:

1. Why is the identity of the woman not disclosed by the media? If it were a man, his identity including photo would be all over the media.
2. Why is there no information of arrest of the woman till now? If this was a man he would have been immediately arrested and people would have been on the streets. He could even have been lynched as has happened in the recent past in other parts of India.

This brings us to 2 conclusions:

1. We live in a society where male disposability is the norm. No one is concerned about the ordeal faced by this minor boy in his formative years. The incident is not even termed as rape. It is classified as forced physical relationship thereby undermining it.
2. Why is the perpetrator, who is a woman in this case, treated with kid gloves and not being subjected to ‘EQUAL’ treatment. Does equality only means getting more benefits?

Let us analyse the Indian Law in this aspect. Forced sexual intercourse with a minor comes under 2 statutes, Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code which defines rape states:

A man is said to commit “rape” if he-—

penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or

inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or

manipulates any part of the body of a woman so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any of body of such woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person; or

applies his mouth to the vagina, anus, urethra of a woman or makes her to do so with him or any other person,

under the circumstances falling under any of the following seven descriptions:—

First.—Against her will.

Secondly.—Without her consent.

Thirdly.—With her consent, when her consent has been obtained by putting her or any person in whom she is interested, in fear of death or of hurt.

Fourthly.—With her consent, when the man knows that he is not her husband and that her consent is given because she believes that he is another man to whom she is or believes herself to be lawfully married.

Fifthly.—With her consent when, at the time of giving such consent, by reason of unsoundness of mind or intoxication or the administration by him personally or through another of any stupefying or unwholesome Substance, she is unable to understand the nature and consequences of that to which she gives consent.

Sixthly.—With or without her consent, when she is under eighteen years of age.

Seventhly.—When she is unable to communicate consent

The starting of the definition is “A man is said to commit “rape” if he”, therefore only a man can commit a rape. A woman cannot commit such an act as per the IPC. Therefore the acts committed, such as above donot find a place here, hence the woman clearly cannot be tried for rape, which is precisely what she did. Therefore this brings us to a point of ‘Equality’; Article 14 of the Constitution states that “The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth”. Does the minor boy have the same level of protection? Is it equality? Is the law gender neutral? You decide!

Now let us analyse the provisions of POCSO. The statute defines 2 types of sexual assaults on minors: a) Penetrative Sexual Assault, and b) Non Penetrative Sexual Assault. Penetrative Sexual Assault is defined under section 3 of the Act:

A person is said to commit “penetrative sexual assault” if—

(a) he penetrates his penis, to any extent, into the vagina, mouth, urethra or anus of a child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or

(b) he inserts, to any extent, any object or a part of the body, not being the penis, into the vagina, the urethra or anus of the child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or

(c) he manipulates any part of the body of the child so as to cause penetration into the vagina, urethra, anus or any part of body of the child or makes the child to do so with him or any other person; or

(d) he applies his mouth to the penis, vagina, anus, urethra of the child or makes the child to do so to such person or any other person

If we analyse the definition of penetrative sexual assault, it can “ONLY” be committed by a man, a woman cannot commit such an act (every sub-clause starts with a ‘He’). Therefore in this instant case where the minor boy was sexually assaulted by this woman, it is not defined under penetrative sexual assault. Why; again the definition is ‘NOT’ gender neutral and the minor is not ‘EQUALLY’ protected.

Then, what crime is said to be committed by this woman? It is ‘non-penetrative sexual assault’. Yes that is correct it is a minor offense. Let us read the definition of sexual assault as per section 7:

Whoever, with sexual intent touches the vagina, penis, anus or breast of the child or makes the child touch the vagina, penis, anus or breast of such person or any other person, or does any other act with sexual intent which involves physical contact without penetration is said to commit sexual assault.

So in essence, such a gruesome act comes under the definition of non-penetrative sexual assault. Now what is the difference, would be the next question. The difference friends is the punishment.

The punishment for penetrative sexual assault is minimum 7 years extendable to imprisonment for life (Section 4). And the punishment for non-penetrative sexual assault is minimum 3 years extendable to 5 years.

So in simple terms we draft our laws in a gender biased manner so that criminal women are treated with kid gloves and let off without any repercussions. Further, crimes committed by them are not even defined as crimes (rape by women does not come under the IPC). No wonder serious crimes by women have increased exponentially (refer to my previous article titled ‘The Fairer Criminals’) over the past decade.

The 2000 American Association of University Women (AAUW) data indicate that 57.2 percent of all students report a male offender and 42.4 percent a female offender with the Cameron et al. study reporting nearly identical proportions as the 2000 AAUW data (57 percent male offenders vs. 43 percent female offenders).

Schwartz, Barbara K. and Cellini, Henry R have estimated as many as 63% of sex abusers may be female in their paper titled “Female sex offenders”. The sex offender: Corrections, treatment, and legal practice. Kingston, NJ: Civic Research Institute.

If the incidences of female sexual abusers are as high as 63% then why are the rape laws not gender neutral? Is “Equality” not a doctrine enshrined by our constitution?

Let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

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Source: Wikipedia

Note: Do feel free to comment on the article if you have any concerns with the same. Your concerns will be appropriately responded / updated

Benefits of Legalizing Prostitution

Note: For Mature Audiences Only.

India – Rape Statistics

The total number of frivolous cases and acquittals (as a percentage of cases reported) during a year has been consistently over 50%, nearing 70% in a few years and touching 71% for 2003. Such a high number of frivolous cases and acquittals is a very serious concern as the identity of the rape victims were protected who filed the complaints and the accused identity was made public. Presently in India, one accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourses for defending himself. The woman gets a public prosecutor (ie. an attorney appointed by the state to fight the case on her behalf). There is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman primarily because of –

• Her identity being protected, therefore filing a frivolous complaint has no public backlash. Whereas the accused’s life is destroyed due to her frivolous complaint
• As a public prosecutor is provided to the woman, there is no financial drain on her resources
• There are hardly any consequences for filing a false rape case. (though a perjury case may be filed)

False rape complaints are a menace to the society and stringent action should be taken against them, let us all Stand up for a Cause…

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The percentage has been calculated as a percentage of the number of incidents reported during the year

Frivolous Cases includes: a) Cases compounded or withdrawn, b) cases declared false on account of mistake of fact or of law, c) cases not investigated or in which investigation was refused, d) cases withdrawn by the govt., and e) cases withdrawn by the govt. during investigation.

Data Source: NCRB Software for analysis Crime Info

Related articles

• False Rape Charges on the Rise – (Part 2) (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• False Rape Charges on the Rise (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• The many shades of rape cases in Delhi (thehindu.com)

Hang Juvenile Rapists?

The burning issue these days is should the Juvenile Rapists be hanged?

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Let us understand a bit of law for a better grasp of the issue as per Section 83 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) any act committed by a child above 7 years of age and below 12, who has not attained sufficient maturity of understanding to judge of the nature and consequences of his conduct on that occasion is not to be considered as an offence. Therefore, rape if committed by a person over 12 years of age is automatically a crime and a punishable offence. Therefore the reasoning given by proponents of hang the juvenile rapists that such acts are not considered as crime is incorrect. Such acts are considered as crimes.

About The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 (Act)

The Act is the legal framework under which juveniles (individuals below 18 years of age), who commit a crime are tried and rehabilitated. The primary motive of the Act is to ‘Treat and Rehabilitate’ juveniles. The Act was brought in compliance of Child Rights Convention 1989 of the United Nations. The objectives of the Act are:

• To consolidate and amend the law relating to juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, by providing for proper care, protection and treatment by catering to their development needs, and by adopting a child-friendly approach in the adjudication and disposition of matters in the best interest of children and for their ultimate rehabilitation through various institutions established
• To Adhere to the constitutional provisions which are:
  • Article 15(3): Special Provisions for women and children
  • Article 39 (e): That the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength
  • Article 39 (f): That children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment

Therefore the Act was primarily for rehabilitation of juveniles who have strayed towards crime so that they can become contributing members to the society.

Understanding Punishment:

Before we jump on #HangTheRapist bandwagon, it is critical to understand the concept and theories of punishment. Punishment typically serve 5 purposes:

• Deterrent Theory of Punishment: Punishment’s primary purpose is to show the futility of crime, thereby teaching a lesson to others. The ideology behind this type of punishment is that crime is committed to further the interest of the criminal, against the well being of the society. The deterrent theory tries to make crime an expensive affair making it a bad bargain for the criminals. The drawback of this theory is that crime is often committed in the heat of the moment and the criminal does not have the wherewithal at that moment to weigh his/her acts, hence the desired effects are generally not seen under this theory.

In an interesting judgement of Phul Singh vs State Of Haryana, the young accused had raped a 24 year old neighbour. The hon’able Supreme Court had held, the appellant is a youth barely 22 with no criminal antecedents save this offence. A man like the appellant has a reasonable prospect of shaping into a balanced person, given propitious social environs, curative and congenial work and techniques of internal stress release or of reformatory self expression. The hon’able court observed, the incriminating company of lifers and others for long may be counter-productive, and in this perspective, we blend deterrence with correction and reduce the sentence to rigorous imprisonment for two years.

• Preventive Theory of Punishment: This theory focuses on preventing the crime by disabling the criminal. Historically maiming was considered to be an effective method of prevention, ie. cut the hand of a thief etc… The barbaric act of maiming has been abolished and been converted to imprisonment where the criminal is put behind bars so that he/she is prevented from committing the crime till he/she is behind bars.
• Reformative Theory of Punishment: The ideology behind this theory is that a person may commit a crime due weakness of the character of the person. Here the focus is to strengthen the character of the criminal so that he/she may not become a victim of his/her own temptation. Here the criminals are sent to the prison to be reformed and turn a new leaf so that when they are released they can become law abiding and contributing citizens of the society.
• Retributive Theory of Punishment: In simple terms retributive theory means that the criminals ‘pays’ for what he/she has done. The state tries to avenge the pain of the wronged person. The idea behind this theory is evil should be treated by evil ie. an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The theory rests on the moral satisfaction the wronged person gets by seeing the pain being inflicted on the criminal.
• Compensating Theory of Punishment: The object of this theory is to compensate the victim of the crime. The theory suggests that the crime comes from the fountain of greed and if the ill-gotten gains of the crime are made to return to the victim, this fountain would dry up thereby reducing crime. A severe limitation of this theory is that many crimes are not committed due to economic motives.

In essence a criminal justice system ought to have a judicious mix of the above punishments and should try and remove crime not the criminals…

In Ramesh Kaushik vs B. L. Vig, Superintendent, the hon’able Supreme Court stated that the fundamental fact of prison reforms comes from our constitutional recognition that every prisoner is a person and personhood holds the human potential which, if unfolded, makes a robber a Valmiki and a sinner a saint.

Let us now analyse the question at hand ‘Hang the Juvenile Rapists’. Rape as a crime, primarily has 2 motives Sex and Power. As per the research, sex is the prime motivator for rape, thereby it is typically a crime committed in the heat of the moment. The criminal is of a weak character and unable to restrain his urges to commit a crime. Further, in case of juveniles, the criminal majorly does not have the sufficient maturity to understand his/her acts coupled with the weakness of character. Thereby the most fruitful punishment theory in such a case is the ‘Reformative Theory’. Having a stricter punishment will not be a deterrent to such a crime as the motives are different and out of the control of the juvenile, further, preventive theory will also not be fruitful as the criminal is not a habitual one. Compensative theory is not possible as the motive was not economic.

The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000 therefore correctly comprehends the mental make up of a juvenile offender and provides them an opportunity to reform which is possible at this tender age. The sprit of vengeance of the retributive theory is also met as the offender is put behind bars for 3 years to contemplate and reform into a law-abiding citizen.

Is capital punishment a cure for crimes?

In simple terms the answer is ‘NO’, reasons given below:

• In US, the states which have abolished death penalties have a considerably lower serious crime rates. Hence, it is safe to state that death penalty does not have any deterrent effect.
• The correct thing to do is finish the crime and not the criminal. Death penalty is finishing the criminal and not the crime
• Are our laws of evidence and laws of procedure foolproof? Does it always lead us to the truth? Can there be no judicial errors? In such a scenario death penalty is not the correct sentence as once awarded it cannot be revoked.
• Further, even consensual sex can be termed as rape such as promise of marriage cases etc. Consensual sex by a juvenile with a person of the same age is defined as rape (see definition of rape). Should we hang the boy having consensual sex with a girl of the same age?
• False rape cases have also increased in the recent past as mentioned in Link1 and Link2, punishments awarded in such cases cannot be revoked

Conclusion: My appeal to everyone, think before following a ‘fad’. Every action has certain consequences, understand them. Understand why justice system is there what does it plan to achieve, how does it plan to achieve its stated objectives. Understand the psyche of the crime and criminal before coming to a conclusion. In the article above I have tried to bring out all the different facets of the debate coming to a conclusion that #HangTheRapists will not reduce rapes and will be contrary to the juvenile justice system. Further, justice system is not a system to get vengeance but a system to protect and improve the society. Providing harsher punishments, which donot meet the desired objectives, is tilting the sclaes towards vengeance away from justice.

What do you want, let us all Stand Up for a Cause…

India – Select Rape Statistics

Today, I will just be providing some select rape statistics of certain states of India. I will let the readers analyze the data.

State	Year	Cases Reported	Frivolous Cases	%   of Frivolous Cases (as a % of reported cases)	Decadal Growth / (Reduction) in reported cases
West Bengal	2001	709	518	73.1%	226.0%
	2010	2311	595	25.7%
Assam	2001	817	389	47.6%	110.6%
	2010	1721	622	36.1%
Karnataka	2001	293	190	64.8%	100.0%
	2010	586	316	53.9%
Punjab	2001	298	204	68.5%	83.2%
	2010	546	386	70.7%
Haryana	2001	398	346	86.9%	80.9%
	2010	720	442	61.4%
Tamil Nadu	2001	423	204	48.2%	62.2%
	2010	686	363	52.9%
Rajasthan	2001	1049	1033	98.5%	49.8%
	2010	1571	1020	64.9%
Andhra Pradesh	2001	871	845	97.0%	56.4%
	2010	1362	988	72.5%
Gujarat	2001	286	168	58.7%	42.7%
	2010	408	160	39.2%
Delhi	2001	381	81	21.3%	33.1%
	2010	507	281	55.4%
Odisha	2001	790	449	56.8%	29.7%
	2010	1025	598	58.3%
Maharashtra	2001	1302	764	58.7%	22.8%
	2010	1599	934	58.4%
Bihar	2001	888	511	57.5%	-10.5%
	2010	795	746	93.8%
Uttar Pradesh	2001	1958	852	43.5%	-20.2%
	2010	1563	959	61.4%

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‘Frivolous Cases’ mean sum of a) Cases Declared False on Account of Mistake of Fact or of Law, b) Cases not Investigated or in which investigation was refused, c) Cases Withdrawn by the Govt., d) Cases withdrawn by the Govt. during investigation, e) Cases Compounded or Withdrawn and f) Cases Acquitted or Discharged during the year.

Data Source: NCRB Software for analysis Crime Info

False Rape Charges on the Rise – (Part 2)

I was recently reading a news article wherein lawyers and activists had demanded that a trial court judge should not be allowed to preside over rape cases as he had a patriarchal morality. On reading through the detailed judgment we find the following:

1. The woman made contrary statements on when they had sexual intercourse. In one statement she said, the first sexual intercourse was in the year ‘X’ and during cross-examination she stated that the sexual intercourse was in the year ‘Y’. There was a wide difference in the years made in the 2 statements at different times.
2. The woman herself stated that the boy did not give any time frame for marriage, therefore had no guarantee when the boy would marry her. Hence, she ought to have been circumspect before giving her consent for sexual intercourse.
3. The emails and chats provided by the boy show a completely different picture. It showed that the woman was insisting the boy to have sexual intercourse with her and the boy was not inclined to the same.
4. There was no indication in the emails and chats that the boy had made any promise of marriage to the woman and that she consented to sexual intercourse with the boy only for that promise and in fact, sexual intercourse had taken place between the two.
5. The woman was a major when she started chatting with the boy. Further, she was well-educated and working in an office job with a reputed company in a large metropolitan city. She was an independent woman and had resided on rent alone in the large metropolitan city since the past few years.

Based on the facts the learned judge stated that –

“In my opinion, every act sexual intercourse between two adults on the assurance of promise of marriage does not become rape, if the assurance or promise is not fulfilled later on by the boy. When a grown up, educated and office going woman subjects herself to sexual intercourse with a friend or colleague on the latter’s promise that he would marry her, she does so at her own peril. She must be taken to understand the consequences of her act and must know that there is no guarantee that the boy would fulfill his promise. He may or may not do so. She must understand that she is engaging in an act which not only is immoral but also against the tenets of every religion. No religion in the world allows pre-marital sex.”

Based on the facts of the case and reading the statement in context it does not seem that the learned judge had any patriarchal mindset as stated by various activists. This seems to be a progressive judgment based on facts in which a boy was accused of a false rape charge. Strong contrary facts to the above were found during trial.

Many activists are stating that such judgments have a serious impact on the society, as victims become scared of complaining by seeing the attitude of the courts. This is a very flawed and incorrect argument, as there is no accountability whatsoever for filing a frivolous complaint by the woman primarily because of:

• Her identity is protected and hence filing a frivolous complaint has no public backlash for her. Whereas the accused’s life is totally destroyed due to her frivolous complaint.
• As a public prosecutor is provided to the woman, there is no financial drain on her resources.
• There are hardly any consequences in Indian law for filing a false rape case. (though a perjury case may be filed)

One accusation from a woman makes the man a criminal, one accusation destroys his career and one accusation drains out his savings on legal recourse for defending himself.

False rape complaints are a menace to the society and stringent action should be taken against them, the NCRB data below speaks for itself.

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‘% of convicted cases’ has been calculated as a percentage of the number of incidents reported during the year. (ie. Number of cases in which convictions were made during the year / Number of reported incidents during the year)

Home Page: Stand Up for a Cause…

False Rape Charges on the Rise

A resent news article titled ‘False cases behind Delhi’s tag of rape capital: Court’, stated that a 75 year old man was accused of raping his maid servant was acquitted. As per the judgment, a frail old man of 75 years was accused of rape and had to suffer 6 months of jail time before being granted bail. The main reason for slapping the false rape was to merely extract money from the man.

Based on the lady’s complaint, the old man was sent for potency test wherein it was opined that there is nothing to suggest that he cannot perform sexual intercourse.

National Crime Records Bureau – 2012 Crime in India & Suicide statistics Analysis (Final Part)

A few charts showing data on crimes in India –

Male Suicides and frivolous cases plotted on a graph and scaled to 100 is given below:

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Notes:

1. ‘% of convicted cases’ has been calculated as a percentage of the number of incidents reported during the year. (ie. Number of cases in which convictions were made during the year / Number of reported incidents during the year).
2. ‘Frivolous Cases’ mean sum of a) Cases Declared False on Account of Mistake of Fact or of Law, b) Cases not Investigated or in which investigation was refused, c) Cases Withdrawn by the Govt., d) Cases withdrawn by the Govt. during investigation, e) Cases Compounded or Withdrawn and f) Cases Acquitted or Discharged.
3. Data Source: NCRB Software for analysis Crime Info and ADSI Info.
4. Please feel free to drop a message if you believe any data / graph is incorrect above. I would try to address your concern as appropriate.

Related articles

• National Crime Records Bureau – 2012 Crime in India Analysis (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• National Crime Records Bureau – Suicide Stats – 2012 (Part 1) (standupforacause.wordpress.com)
• National Crime Records Bureau – Suicide Stats – 2012 (Part 2) (standupforacause.wordpress.com)

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