Hang the rapists
Cry fair sex before ‘blind’ people
Lax police-laws make assailants bold
Amit
Facebook and Twitter are flooded with the cry: Hang the rapists. In the wake of Delhi outrage, towns and villages in the twin states of Bihar and Jharkhand are stirred up with rallies and demand to kill the persons defiling girls and women.
Protests in Delhi
The demand assumes urgency as the society, especially bureaucracy and political parties have turned a blind eye to the woes of fair sex. Prolonged court cases make mockery of the laws of the land. A Darbhanga rapist is yet to be sent to gallows though even the Supreme Court confirmed his hanging some seven years ago.
The total number of rape cases reported to Bihar police is 823 this year till October. (See crime chart alongside) At least two rape cases are reported every month in the Patna district alone. The tally during the first ten months of 2012 comes 40 cases. It is an admitted fact that many cases go unreported due to social reasons.
Moreover, there are no fast track courts in Bihar to deal with cases of rapes, gang-rapes and other sexual harassment. According to official figure, over 1,000 cases of rape and sexual assault are pending in different courts of Bihar for many years. Some 300 cases, including 35 in Patna and 15 in Nalanda, are pending at police station level as the police have failed to file charge-sheets. Out of over 20,000 cases under different Sections of Cr. P. C. pending in the Danapur, Patna City, Barh, Masaurhi and Patna civil courts, more than 100 are rape cases. And, most of the rape accused are out on bail. Lawyers blame police for directionless probes and lackadaisical approach. In many cases, lawyers allege, police also ‘destroy’ rape cases with poor investigation.
People wake up
A young woman, 32, with learning difficulties was allegedly raped in the night of December 28-29 in the Asha ward of Motihari Sadar Hospital, where she had taken shelter to save herself from the chilling cold. The police were conducting raids to nab the accused, Ram Sakal Ram, a grade IV staff of the hospital. Civil Surgeon Dr Saroj Singh said the victim was admitted to the hospital following the incident and she was undergoing treatment.
The Motihari DSP, Motihari said the CS sent a written FIR to the police, about 18 hours of the rape incident. Medical examination of the victim confirmed rape. Five persons, inspired by the nationwide protest over Delhi gang rape case, have given written statement to the police in this case and it is for the first time when people voluntarily came forward to give statement for an unknown poor woman.
According to police, as the woman cried for help, ten attendants of the patients in the hospital rushed to the place and chased the accused person. One Nagendra Verma lodged a written complaint to the CS.
The civil surgeon admitted the lapse on the part of hospital doctors who did not inform the police in time resulting in delay in the medical examination of the victim. Actually, the medical examination was conducted 42 hours after the incident. According to health department sources, the accused had tried to outrage the modesty of an Asha worker (woman) in the same hospital two years ago and he was sent to jail for that.
The outcry is, therefore, a natural corollary to ever-growing crimes against the fair sex. Bihar is in the grip of ‘jungle raj’. One may or may not agree with this conclusion of National Commission for Women member Charu Wali Khanna. But, the fact remains that the situation on this front is grim.
All these factors have snowballed into a situation where the rapists do not fear the police and legal system. Moreover, sex educations in schools and fast dwindling sex ratio have created a grim scenario. As per 2011 census, the ratio in Bihar has declined sharply to only 868 females against 1000 males. There are at least 49 villages with a sex ratio of 700 in the state. Darbhanga has 16 villages with a ratio of 600.
Not to talk of poorly policed villages, women and girls are not safe in towns, including the state capital. A teenage girl was gang-raped allegedly by three men in Patna district just four days before the year 2012 ended. The incident took place in Chhoti Kewai village and alleged perpetrators were identified as Guddu Yadav, Annu Yadav and Arjun Yadav, police said. There is hardly any hue and cry when poor girls are sexually ravaged and gang-raped in villages. A minor girl was forcibly dragged near a bamboo bush and gang-raped and the rapists strangled her to death at village Bangama under Bahadurganj police station in Kishanganj district. Earlier, the police recovered the body of a girl near Darmiya-Mariadangi in the same Bahadurganj police station. She was gang-raped and killed.
A gang of hoodlums allegedly attempted to abduct and gang-rape a 17-year-old school girl in Saharsa. This triggered huge protest in the town. The tension is all the more as the victim and the hoodlums belong to mutually warring castes. Police said a youth, Animesh, went to a local government girls’ high school around 12.30 pm and asked the girl that her brother, Golu Yadav, was calling her at the school gate. When the girl, who is a Class X student, reached the gate, she was forcibly pushed into a waiting car allegedly by Animesh and his four friends whose faces were covered. She is learnt to have told her family members that the youth assaulted her in the moving car when she protested their bid to sexually molest her. She was attacked by a sharp blade on her right hand and has received at least half-a-dozen cut marks. Police said the boys kept moving the car for over 45 minutes on different roads outside the town and later dumped her near the Kutcheri Chowk as she kept resisting their bid to outrage her modesty.
Patna police steps
Patna girls holding a protest rally in the town.
Patna police, however, have come out with a plan to restore confidence among the fair sex. They have come up with some actions to provide security to women in the state capital. Senior superintendent of police convened a meeting where issues related to safety of women were discussed. Among the decisions taken at the meeting was the immediate revival of the unique identification numbering system for auto-rickshaws. Cops have also been directed to ensure that every auto-rickshaw has a light inside the vehicle, which is switched on after sundown.
BJ Mirror.com, Jan. 2013 