I ALWAYS KNEW IT !!!!!!!

Pressing Charges
[ Wednesday, November 30, 2005 12:00:00 am TIMES NEWS NETWORK

The country's criminal justice system is not particularly sensitive to the plight of rape victims. The bizarre case of a daughter confessing that she had falsely charged her father of rape, after the Supreme Court had awarded him a life sentence, is only going to make things worse.

In a sworn affidavit, the daughter admitted that she had framed him at the instance of her mother with whom he had strained relations.

The case will give male chauvinists, who've been claiming that rape and dowry laws are frequently misused by women, a chance to say I told you so.

But it could well be that after so many years (the case was filed in 1988) the daughter (now 31 and married) no longer wanted an ageing father to spend the rest of his life in jail. Or she may have given the affidavit under threat.

Whatever it is, the case will have a damaging effect on the victim's testimony in a rape case. All charges in future will be viewed with suspicion, and victims subjected to more gruelling interrogation.

Each time a victim appears in court, she has to relive the horrors of the crime. With the defiling of one of the most sacred relationships, rape victims are likely to encounter a less sympathetic atmosphere.

The court must do everything within its power to arrive at the truth. It would be a good idea to involve professional counsellors with the investigation who can spot the tell-tale signs of rape trauma instead of leaving the probe to insensitive policemen.

The case also raises questions about giving false evidence in court. The daughter should be tried for lying on oath and misleading the court.

Unfortunately, perjury laws in India are far too lenient which encourage people to give evidence which they later withdraw.

The maximum number of acquittals in criminal cases are on account of witnesses changing their statement or turning hostile.

The prose-cuting agencies and courts, overburdened as they are, seldom press charges of perjury against them. This needs to change.

They must be tried for perjury and brought to justice. The penalty for perjury also needs to be raised. At present it involves a jail term of up to three months and a fine of Rs 500.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1312252.cms

1.      The author alleges the country’s criminal justice system to be insensitive to rape victims without supporting his/her contention anywhere in the article. In fact, the case in question is a stark reminder to the judicial system that there could be plenty of cases, where the accused are falsely convicted. It’s the duty of the system to punish the guilty and acquit the falsely accused. and this case should be pointer that all is not right in the current practices of law and law enforcing agencies.

2.      The author thinks that it’s male chauvinist propaganda to bring into light the gross misuse of biased law like rape laws and dowry laws. One doesn’t have to be chauvinist to believe so, one only has to be mere victim. The author should take the pain to find out the realities of the society, such lose statements doesn’t augur well for the esteemed newspaper as TOI.

3.      The author also puts forward a plausible theory of victim filing the affidavit  under threat or because she doesn’t want her father to spend rest of his life in jail. Again, the author has gone overboard in stating facts and is being over imaginative. There could be many plausible theories viz. the victim never realized, her father would land up with life imprisonment, so she decided to let the court know the truth or the victim was a minor at the time of the complaint and could have easily been manipulated, now that she is mature enough, better sense may have prevailed on her. And so on. The point is such journalism is an attempt to misguide and manipulate the mass about the existing facts. There is a huge difference between views and imagination, the editor should differentiate between them.

4.      The author believes that such cases would only be damaging to the victim as in future the complaint would be viewed with suspicion. Rape is a serious crime and the guilty should be severely punished. But, more the number of false cases, more the victims complaint would be treated with suspicion. Women themselves are enemies of women, before filing a false complaint, they are least bothered about its effect on the actual victims. The law doesn’t work on assumptions, complainant has to be prepared to undergo grueling examination. It’s not always the fault of the system to prevent such heinous crimes, what precautions do the victims take to prevent it?

5.      The author suggests that the court must do everything in its power to arrive at the truth. Excellent suggestion. But, why limit it to only rape cases, it should be applied to all cases viz those falling under 498 A, 406, 304 etc.

6.      The author says that prosecuting agencies and courts are overburdened to press perjury charges on false testimonies. The court has to deal with plethora of false cases like dowry cases, 406, dowry deaths etc. Unless the false cases are curbed, the court would always be over burdened.

The irony of the article is that, the author has put the blame on the efficiency of the judicial system, which he/she may be right, but he/she has himself/herself not come out clean in projecting the incident in true light. It is another intentional attempt by the media and feminist forces to manipulate and mislead the public at large, about the realities of the society.

Do we need such biased journalism? Should there be censorship in media?

11:40 AM - Thursday, December 15, 2005 - post comment

Pls continue writing

Wasif, Iam seeing ur blog for the first time, we need to keep on writing truth, lest it goes un-noticed. Pls restart with vigour.

Gokul - 8:58 AM - Monday, January 5, 2009

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Untitled Comment

I think you should keep writing the blogs.
Kamal

Anonymous - 7:27 AM - Saturday, September 19, 2009

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