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May 2017 Edition of Power Politics is updated.  Happy Diwali to all our subscribers and Distributors       May 2017 Edition of Power Politics is updated.   Happy Diwali to all our subscribers and Distributors       
Issue:May' 2017

CRIMES AGAINST WOMEN

Death for rape

CM Chouhan's one more gimmick !

N D Sharma

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan : poor track record ! When the illegal sand mining became a hot topic following attacks by mining mafia on some government employees trying to check the racket, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced his determination to cleanse the river Narmada and launched his Narmada Seva Yatra without spelling out how he planned to stop the flow of over 200 sewerage drains into the river.
Launched on December 11 last, the Narmada Seva Yatra is a grand 'success' as it has diverted public attention not only from illegal sand mining but from many other similar things also.
When there was a spurt of reports about rape incidents in the State, the Chief Minister thundered that the perpetrator of such a heinous crime deserved to be hanged. He did not stop there but announced that his government would bring a bill in the monsoon session of the Assembly to amend the relevant section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for awarding death sentence to the rapist.
To convince the public about seriousness of his intention, he added that after the amendment bill was passed by the Assembly, it would be sent 'to the Centre and the President' (for the President's assent).
'Death to the rapist' has been a favourite slogan of many BJP leaders in Madhya Pradesh which has for many years been enjoying the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of rape cases in the country.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, as many as 4391 rape cases were recorded in the State in 2015. In the following year, the number went up to 4527, according to a reply given by Home Minister Bhupendra Singh to a question of a Congress member in the budget session of the Assembly. Of these 13 women were killed after they were raped and another 14 committed suicide, the minister added.
The Assembly was further informed that on an average 11 women were raped every day while six women were gang-raped every week in the last one year. In a candid admission in an interview to a magazine, the MP Home Minister said that the number of registered rape cases in Madhya Pradesh did not reflect the true picture of the incidents of the crime; in many cases the victims either did not come forward to lodge the complaint or changed their statements in court or retracted the allegations.
Chouhan's proposed law for awarding death sentence to rapist is as much a gimmick as his Narmada Seva Yatra. The problem is not the lack of sufficient penal provision in the law. The IPC stipulates from seven years' rigorous imprisonment to life sentence to a rape convict. The problem is of ensuring conviction in which Madhya Pradesh has a poor record of mere 20 per cent conviction rate. Besides, the police force in Madhya Pradesh has been converted by Chouhan into his own personal sena and has virtually lost aptitude and interest in taking the people's grievances seriously.
Here are a few examples: some time back, a young pregnant Bhil (tribal) woman of Dhand village in Guna district was raped by some youths belonging to the Meena community of Konyakalan village.
Next day the family members of the victim went to Chachaura police station to lodge the complaint but the police shooed them away as the Meenas in the region are politically and financially influential people.
It was only at the persistence of the Bhils, who have a substantial population in the area, that the police condescended to register the complaint four days later.
Two Meena youths were named in the FIR, though subsequent reports said that the hapless woman was raped by four persons.
The police made no attempt to arrest the alleged rapists even after registering the FIR, spreading unrest among the Bhils. After waiting for over two weeks, the Bhils held their Mahapanchayat on the banks of a pond near Dhand in which about 5000 tribals were said to have been present. Then they marched en masse to the police station and shot arrows at the police killing an inspector. In the subsequent police firing a Bhil was also killed. Significantly, the tribals wanted justice and not revenge. With their numbers and the alacrity with which they had moved, they were in a position to take on the Meena family.
The Bhil Mahapanchayat had ordained that they were not to go to Konyakalan village.
Their ire was directed at the police which was supposed to ensure justice to the aggrieved family and punishment to the perpetrators of the crime. The police officers of the district tried to spread the myth that the Bhils were going to attack the Meenas and that the police inspector was killed while trying to prevent the clash between the two communities. The police could not find many takers for their blatant falsehood.
And what did Chief Minister Chauhan do? He went to the house of the slain police inspector to console the bereaved family and promised a job in the police department to his son. Nothing particularly bad in that. He, however, did not stop there. He declared the slain police inspector a 'martyr'. He had nothing to say about the grievances of the tribals and the despicable role of the police.

Chouhan's proposed law for awarding death sentence to rapist is as much a gimmick as his Narmada Seva Yatra. The problem is not the lack of sufficient penal provision in the law. The IPC stipulates from seven years' rigorous imprisonment to life sentence to a rape convict. The problem is of ensuring conviction in which Madhya Pradesh has a poor record of mere 20 per cent conviction rate.

A little later, as the Chief Minister was indulging in his periodic fetish of signing MoUs worth lakhs of crores of rupees in an extravaganza organised with the public money at Khajuraho, not far from there a teenaged girl belonging to a poor farmer family was raped and burnt alive. The police did not only refuse to register their complaint but sided with the perpetrators of the horrendous crime.
Vasundhara, of Magdupura village under Tejpur police station in Damoh district, was a student of the 12th class; she had stood first in the eleventh standard in the entire tehsil. One evening, just as the extravaganza was being laid out at Khajuraho not far from the village, Nonelal Patel and his wife accompanied their daughter Vasundhara to the police station where the girl narrated amidst sobs how Saurabh Patel, a neighbour, had dragged her to a secluded place and raped her. Vasundhara's mother had even brought the clothes her daughter was wearing at the time of the incident.

The police were said to have questioned Vasundhara and her parents for over two hours. After that they registered a case under Sections 354 (assault on woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt). There was no mention of rape in police report. Nonelal Patel was asked to come to the police station the following day.
Next day Nonelal carried with the help of his brother and others the half-burnt body of his daughter to the police station and presented it to the in-charge of the police station. Vasundhara, still struggling for life, told the police officer that this morning as she was lying down in her grand-mother's room, Saurabh Patel came with three of his family members; they poured kerosene on her, set her afire and hurriedly made their escape.
Saurabh was shouting, according to Vasundhara's statement, that he wanted to see how she would go to the police now. Vasundhara's shrieks had attracted her father and others who doused the fire and took her to the police station. Vasundhara later died in the hospital.
A 40-year tribal woman of Khajri Dhana village in Betul district walked all the way to the district headquarters to complain to the Collector that the Sarpanch of the village and four others had raped her a few days back and had been harassing her continuously since. As the Collector had no time, she was asked to take her complaint to the

If Chouhan carries out his ill-conceived threat of amending the law to provide for death sentence to rapist, it is likely to result in killing of more women after rape so that there is little evidence left. Chouhan's police will be only too happy. Who cares if the rate of conviction falls further!

lesser luminaries of the district administration where again she was treated shabbily. In sheer frustration, she consumed some poisonous stuff. However, before she could consume the entire stuff, the bottle was snatched by some people and she was thus saved. In another incident in Betul district itself, a Dalit rape victim (who was a village panchayat member) had taken her life in front of the Collector's office after fighting for justice for six years. In her dying declaration, the victim had claimed that she was ending her life as nobody had acted on her complaints while her rapists had continued to harass her. Another rape victim in Satna district in yet another part of the State, harassed by the perpetrators of the crime and the police alike, also tried to commit suicide. Such instances are legion. If Chief Minister Chouhan carries out his ill-conceived threat of amending the law to provide for death sentence to rapist, it is likely to result in killing of more women after rape so that there is little evidence left. Chouhan's police will be only too happy. Who cares if the rate of conviction falls further!