Crime and no punishment : Root cause of rape epidemic
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: August 27, 2013 -

Despite the eerie similarly to the gang-rape of a paramedical student and brutal assault on her male colleague in the moving bus by six people at Delhi in December last year, one contrast that could be discerned in the latest gang-rape of a young photojournalist and beating up of her male colleague inside a secluded mill in Mumbai on last Thursday evening was the swiftness of the Mumbai police in identification and arrest of all the five accused within three days of the incident.

Unlike their Delhi counterparts, who passed unnecessary comments where they should have kept mum and dragged on their feet until the entire nation revolted, the action of the Mumbai police spoke louder in pulling up all the five accused one after another within such a short period.

This was really commendable and it is should be a source of inspiration to other State police forces in handling with such a heinous and beastly crime like gang rape in future in any part of the country.

Now that all the five accused in the Mumbai gang-rape case are in their custody, one only hopes that the Mumbai police would show yet another exemplary feat in preparing the charge-sheet at the earliest possible for conducting trial and delivering justice to the victims.

If the assurance given by Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil is anything to go by, then we can expect that the case will be fast-tracked and the charge-sheet will be filed within seven days.

While the chilling similarity between the two gang-rape cases could not be missed, it is sad to know that the Mumbai case is being described as the first major test for the new anti-rape law in the country which was promulgated after the Delhi case.

Of course, the new anti-rape law which came into existence in April this year provides provision for the guilty to be kept behind bars throughout their lives in gang-rape cases as well as for the guilty to pay fine that will cover the medical expenses and rehabilitation cost of the victim. All these strict penalties are okay.

But the question is, why the new stringent anti-rape law has not been able to instill any fear among the rapists?

Or, more pointedly, why the country and its judiciary have been waiting for the Mumbai case to put in test the new anti-rape law?

Low rate of conviction and inherent impotency of the judiciary system in the country, which has not been able to do justice in the Delhi gang-rape case even after eight months of the gruesome incident and four months of enacting the supposedly strong anti-rape law, has only ensured impunity to rapists across the country.

This is the harsh reality.

And this is the answer to why rape is happening again and again.

How we wish, the judges of the Supreme Court, who are wondering why the situation is going from bad to worse, understand this simple fact, instead of just waiting for another gang rape incident to take place in some parts of the country.

More than enactment of any harsher law, it is the judicious implementation through speedy trial that is more important for stopping the epidemic of rape in the country.