In a gut wrenching and heart breaking interview on Zee TV, Amanat’s friend,
the 28-year-old software engineer and only eyewitness to the December 16, 2012
brutal sexual assault, stated that three Police vans arrived at the scene almost
30 to 45 minutes AFTER the call to the police. Further they began to argue
about which thana’s jurisdiction
could be established as the couple lay bleeding, naked, cold and in urgent need
of medical attention. Finally, they were taken to the Safdarjung hospital which
was not the nearest hospital where the two were found, wasting further precious
time. Instead of any apology the Delhi police have rebutted these allegations
of callousness and said Police Control Room (PCR) vans reached the scene within
minutes of the crime and removed the duo to hospital in quick time. To add
insult to injuries, it is being reported that the UPA government is charging
Zee TV for invading the privacy of Amanat because of the interview of the
friend/witness who exposed police lapses. We are all familiar with the attacks
on fundamental rights of the press and expression under this government and this
is absolutely deplorable by any standards. One can’t even begin to imagine the trauma
of the brave man who recounted the happenings of the night on TV, providing us
a mirror to our administrative system and our own social behaviour, as he told
us how passers-by saw the victims and yet walked away without trying to help
them.
For more insight on police
investigations and on our own social ethos in India in sexual assault cases,
let us revisit the Priyadarshini Mattoo and the Aruna Shanbaug cases.
Priyadarshini Mattoo, a student at Delhi
University’s Law Faculty was raped and strangled at her home in Vasant Kunj in
Delhi in January 1996. Santosh Singh, guilty of the heinous crime, was her
senior at college. In this case there was ample evidence that Santosh Singh had
been harassing her and stalking her for some time (with even evidence of a police
FIR which she had filed). There was further and strong evidence of his guilt as
his entry into her apartment had been witnessed by her domestic help on the day
of the crime. He raped her and then hit her with a helmet, leaving her face battered
beyond recognition. The shameless Delhi police did everything within their
powers to get an acquittal for Santosh Singh, including fudging evidence and
concealing facts from the court. Why? Because, the accused's father was a
police IG himself and a government employee from the prestigious Indian Police
Services. The trial court actually acquitted him in 1999 and he was conveniently
rehabilitated as if nothing had happened. He got married and became a
practising lawyer.
Relentless media campaign and the resilience of
the Mattoo family bore fruit when 6 years later the Delhi High Court convicted
him of the crime and the judge pronounced a verdict of death penalty. Finally
the death sentence was converted to life by the Supreme Court and even that doesn’t
really matter because the guy has been out on parole mostly, thanks to the wonderful
Delhi Government and the one and only Sheila Dixit! When someone makes a noise,
promptly he is sent to jail and then he is out again....This is how the Indian
criminal justice system works.
Now let us turn to the Aruna Shanbaug case where a
young and beautiful nurse, Aruna, was brutally raped by a hospital sweeper, Sohanlal
Bhartha Walmiki at the King Edward Memorial hospital in Mumbai. The assault, in
1973, left her permanently nerve damaged due to asphyxiation as Walmiki used a dog
chain to attack her. Those unthinkable moments of brutality changed her life from
someone who was engaged to be married (to a doctor in the same hospital) to a
vegetative patient in the very hospital she worked. Her fiancé moved on and her
family abandoned her after a few years. She continues to “live” in the vegetative
state at the Mumbai hospital and in 2011 a mercy petition for euthanasia for
her was rejected by the Supreme Court. Sohanlal Walmiki was caught and convicted, and served a sentence
for assault and robbery ONLY. The hospital decided to ‘protect’ Aruna by not
making her violent anal rape public. As a result no rape charges were even
filed. Walmiki served his sentence and then went to Delhi, found work and was
rehabilitated.
While we rage and
upset ourselves over our newest braveheart heroine, Amanat, here are questions to
ponder over.
How do rape
convicts (especially in high profile cases like Mattoo and Shanbaug) get so easily
rehabilitated by society? How was it possible for Santosh Singh to get married
and also become a practising lawyer in Delhi? Similarly, Sohanlal Walmiki was
easily able to find a job in Delhi (I read in another hospital!) and was able
to move his entire family and live his life to the full, after having served
his prison sentence. We have said enough about the culture of rape and our
social responsibility. It is time we asked how many of these criminals and
rapists are easily able to find social and even political rehabilitation in
many cases? Again, a personal story for the record. A friend’s neighbour in Ranchi,
as is apparently well established, burnt his wife to death. There was no conviction
despite evidence and he happily lives among ‘civilized’ people who only limit
their social conscience to gossiping behind his back of his evil deeds! He did not
have a problem finding an apartment and no one finds it offensive to live next
to this guy, whose behaviour otherwise is odious in every way as he picks up
petty quarrels and bullies those around him. If at all and shockingly, people
are scared of him. The chalta hai (shit
happens!) attitude till our own backyard starts burning is the issue here. We
learn to live with the stink, why?
Sohanlal Walmiki
and Santosh Singh (not to mention Manu Sharma, Vikas Yadav and so many others)
make a mockery of our sensibilities. We allow them to live amongst us as long
as it is not ‘us’ they harm but another. The very fact that these guys didn’t have
a problem finding jobs, finding homes, speaks volumes about a society and what
it is willing to tolerate. Not an insignificant fact to mention here, how
innocent Muslims in India will not find apartments and houses while we easily
rehabilitate violent criminals and rapists, we vote for them, we give them
jobs and share our neighbourhoods with them. What is wrong with us?
The other
question we should be asking is about chemical castration, which is about decreasing
male libido and sexual desire among rape convicts. In all these three cases (Mattoo,
Shanbaug and Amanat) the culprits were motivated more by revenge and ‘teaching
a lesson’ to those they attacked. Priyadarshini Mattoo had rejected the proposals
and constant harassment of Santosh Singh, her university senior, and had even
complained against him which infuriated him. Sohanlal Walmiki wanted to teach
Aruna a lesson because, according to him, she nagged him constantly and scolded
him for not doing his work well. We all know that Amanat’s rapists have said
similar things. It was when she resisted by hitting and biting them that they
became more violent with her. How can then rape be considered a sexual crime
alone? It is a crime against a particular kind of assertive women in these three
cases where they fought hard and resisted. It is a crime to uphold gender hierarchy
and it is about the exercise of power. This must be understood clearly as we
debate the quantum and nature of punishment. Rape is VIOLENCE of a particular
brutal nature and those committing it should be shamed by society in every way
possible. Isn’t it odd that rape survivors
are shamed and the accused rewarded?
Finally, my point
about “middle class” sensibilities and in response to the arguments put forth
by a commentator on the GIGGN blog where I posted my first article; that rape
is ONLY committed by upper caste men against lower caste women and that Amanat’s
plight outraged everyone because she was middle class. Any crime against anyone should have the same
yardstick of punishment and justice and we know that in hierarchical societies,
the ‘oppressed’ is also not a stable category. It doesn’t take minutes for the ‘oppressed’
to become the ‘oppressor’. Mattoo, Shanbaug and Amanat are not from the same strata,
similar family background and neither are their perpetrators. Mattoo was denied
justice because her perpetrator was upper class, son of a high ranking police
officer. Shanbaug was denied justice because the doctors were guided more by
middle class sensibilities to ‘protect’ her from the media and from the stigma
of anal rape. It is certainly not arguable that class and caste oppression
exist in India but to dismiss ‘middle class’ women as unworthy of support, or
to hint that any crimes against them is less important is deeply troubling. Fact
is that it is always a middle class morality that fundamentalist and
reactionary groups adhere to and hence the need to rescue society from such
moral policing becomes important. Moreover, when you look at the perpetrators
in the two cases mentioned before (the son of a police officer and a hospital
sweeper), there is something other than class/caste that decides how rape
accused are rehabilitated.
It is heartening
to see that for the first time in years people have taken to the streets over
an issue that concerns gender justice and women’s rights. This isn’t the time
to be cynical and condemn the protestors. We must join in large numbers and
keep demanding justice and accountability. We must keep introspecting. This is
no time to rest.
