Author: Swarn Kumar Anand 22 Dec. 2012
Capital punishment for the rapist is not a panacea; the real enemy is the patrician State whose laissez-faire imposition on womanhood should be addressed
The greatest tragedy in India is that we are a great nation with feeble memories. The brutal gang-rape and life-threatening attack on the 23-year-old paramedical student in South Delhi last Sunday seems to have jolted our conscience so much that the clamour for death for rapists has been resonating everywhere. But as days will pass, the outrage will fade as we did with Aruna Shanbaug, who is comatose for the last 39 years, while the culprit is out after serving just a seven-year sentence. There is a strange contrast between our outrage over rapes and the unsustainable fight against the support system to rape. And then, the whole cycle of criticisms, expert opinions, statistics, candlelight marches, and call for death penalty for rapists will take a break until a new victim falls prey to the sexual predator.
Seeking death for rapists is not a panacea. It is easier for parliamentarians to raise voice for capital punishment than to push for revitalising the criminal justice system, which willy-nilly encourages eve-teasers to become serial rapists. There is no doubt that we need stringent punishment which can work as a deterrent. But then, even the existing laws prove toothless for the want of prompt police response, foolproof investigation, and speedy judicial system.
Although in many states of the United States capital punishment for rape exists in the law books, the punishment has never been handed down. The provision of death penalty triggers a whole lot of other hurdles and judges become very reluctant to use it against rapists, particularly if the victim is alive. Even the under-reported official data on rape cases from the National Crime Records Bureau shows a steady rise in registered cases. Last year, 24,206 cases were registered across the country, a jump of 873 per cent from the 1971 figure. But the average conviction rate was mere 26 per cent. Among the union territories, Delhi, with rising incidence of such cases reported in the NCR region, ranked numero uno with 507 cases. Naturally, the brutal rape and assault on the 23-year-old girl caused immense pain in the public and therefore the cry for capital punishment for rapists was laced with a tinge of vengeance. But the moot point is, will death sentence for rape will be a panacea? No. The statute awards death for terrorism, but we know it is not capital punishment, but policing and intelligence that have the potential, combined with the right social policies, to nip terror strikes in the bud.
Rape is a serious crime which needs a multi-dimensional approach to solve the social ills. The golden proverb is ‘prevention is better than cure’. We need to overhaul the system. First, we need to focus on preventive measures as deterrence and then award exemplary punishment. There are few easy steps which can prove effective against the inhuman acts like rape.
1) Choose the carrot and stick policy for police officials. In most of the cases, criminals are confident that they would go scot-free, and so they strike at their own sweet will. In this recent gang-rape case, some revelations about police behaviour are shocking. For instance, despite the abundance of rape cases on moving vehicles, it failed to enforce an old ban on tinted glass panes. Therefore, it is very logical that they should be charged with abetting the gang-rape. Also, had the police acted swiftly on the complaint of the vegetable vendor, who was robbed by the goons, the ghastly gang-rape could have been averted. Bereft of his money and mobile, the vegetable vendor, Ramdhar, started looking for a police station when he saw two bike-borne policemen passing by. But the two cops refused to help him as the area didn’t fall under their
jurisdiction. More shocking is the admission of the Delhi Police that it was a ‘Hafta Diary’ — a levy police officials regularly take to allow illegal plying of vehicles on Capital roads —
that helped them zero in on the rapists’ bus. Had there been no hafta, the rape bus could not have prowled on the road that fateful night.
2) Overhaul infrastructure. Public transport, particularly at nights, in the national capital is inadequate. Delhi, unlike Mumbai and Kolkata, doesn’t have a round-the-clock bus
service. The frequency of DTC buses at night is minimal, if not non-existent. The streets are not well lit, and there are no surveillance cameras to keep tabs on potential threats. Even in this Sunday case, the footage that the police got was due to the courtesy of a nearby hotel.
3) Bring laws to give stringent punishment to eve-teasers to deter them from becoming potential rapists. Besides, this must include social punishment like tagging their government identity cards — voter ID, PAN, Aadhar, driving licence, passport, etc — with ‘potential rapists’.
4) A national online registry should be opened having the eve-teasers’ names, photos and addresses so that they are exposed, humiliated, and ostracised.
5) Make the judiciary responsible. One of the major reasons for the low conviction rate is judges taking the sexual harassment cases not very seriously. A study conducted by Delhi Commission for Women, on the direction of the then Chief Justice of Delhi HC, Madan Lokur, cited
“sessions judges going on leave” and not available for holding court on the scheduled days as one of the primary reasons for adjournment of trial proceedings. And we have the repercussion. As per one study, only one rape accused was convicted out of 635 rape cases reported in Delhi in 2012. However, the real solution is in the social set-up. Despite all measures, we urgently need a long-term plan to liberate women as rape is not just a sexual aggression, but a skewed sense of masculinity and male privilege. The blame goes to grooming in the society which considers the woman as a burden. Such inequalities produce the very hatred against women in the public arena. We need to think about how we can handle women’s equality in ways that are not perceived as threatening. We can’t even imagine of a developed India, when half of its population grows up with the fear of being stalked by sexual predators. More law — or calls for the death sentence — are not the permanent answer to what is a deeply ingrained societal problem. It demands greater responsibility on the part of parents as well as society not to raise sons in a way which indoctrinates them with a sense of pseudo superiority and
privilege. It is high time we wake up from slumber and plan a long-term policy to repair our social conscience.
(The writer is News Editor, The Pioneer)
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/item/53057-rape-and-the-state.html
Hafta diary helps cops zero in on rape bus
By Pramod Kumar Singh, The Pioneer,
New Delhi, December 20, 2012
It was the corrupt practice of allowing transporters to illegally run their buses after-hours that helped the police zero in on the vehicle used in Sunday's gangrape, sources say.
A traffic policeman had reportedly recorded the registration number of the bus in a 'hafta' diary - a record of illegally-plying buses for which bribes have been paid for exemption of prosecution. That immunity from police, however, is seen as the sole reason the gangrape was not detected as no cop intercepted it while it circled the area slowly.
The cop identified the bus when the police relayed the description provided by the victims. It finally led the police to zero in on two transporters with Yadav as their surnames. The bus was culled from a list of 370 chartered buses and the owner Dinesh Yadav was picked up by the police from his Noida Sector 62 residence and brought to verify the description of driver Ram Singh and also identify him after his arrest.
The very fact that the bus was plying illegally for hours on Sunday night with impunity suggests the active collusion of traffic police personnel.
Yadav has contracted the bus to two schools in Noida and South Delhi. He used the bus for picking up passengers after evening and this could not have happened without the connivance of certain personnel in the Delhi Traffic Police which facilitated the illegal operation with rogue driver Ram Singh at the wheels.
His younger brother Mukesh, who allegedly drove the bus around when the 23-year-old girl was subjected to a near unprecedented degree of brutality, had told the police: "mera bhai sharab peene ke baad janwar ban jaata hai" (My brother turns into a beast after consuming liquor).
The entry diary (used by traffic policemen to collect protection money from transporters) gave the exact registration number of the bus which was later corroborated by a police informer who identified the rapists on the basis of the description provided by the male friend of the girl who was also thrashed mercilessly.
The one fact that has left many red faces in Delhi Police is the sheer brazenness of the accused in circling the same stretch multiple times on the fateful night. After brutalizing the girl and throwing her out of the moving bus alongwith her male companion, Mukesh, brought the bus to the same stand at Munirka. Even while the rape was being committed, the bus passed unchallenged by cops on the road.
Mukesh had admitted before the police that he was instructed by his brother to drive slowly while others took turns in raping the girl.
She and her friend were thrown out of the bus during the second round when the bus was negotiating the U-turn below the Mahipalpur flyover. The bus entered Munirka area for the third time after the gangrape and it was taken to Noida by Ram Singh where the bus was washed to erase evidence.
Senior Delhi Police officers admit that there were lapses on part of the Traffic Police that failed to track down buses running illegally after evening hours in the city. Knee-jerk reaction has started to cover the tracks but the National Capital has been shamed, an official said pleading anonymity.
As the Delhi Police digs deeper into the barbaric gangrape of 23-year-old paramedical girl student, skeletons start tumbling out of the closet.
Dinesh Yadav, the owner of the chartered bus (DL-1PC-0149), owns 49 luxury buses and has offices in Navada village in Sector 62 of Noida and Burari in North Delhi. A resident of Aligarh in Western Uttar Pradesh, Yadav is said to be well-heeled and enjoys good rapport several top officers in Delhi Police. It is alleged that he has been running buses on various chartered routes in the national Capital with the active help of officers of Delhi Traffic Police and Delhi Transport department – which on Wednesday suspended the permits of 10 such buses and taxis owned by Yadav.
Transport department has been jolted out of slumber. It has asked the Delhi Police to provide the registration numbers of buses involved in traffic violations for cancellation of permits. The Commissioner Transport is believed to have written a letter to Delhi Police top brass in this regard. Sources said that the records of all the 49 buses owned by Yadav are being examined and further action will be initiated to terminate the permit. It is also being investigated to ascertain as to how he got permits to run buses in the national Capital despite being a resident of neighbouring Noida.
Most of his buses are registered on the addresses of his relatives who live in Burari. Interestingly Burari is an area where the houses are not numbered as there are many owners of a single plot. It also helped Yadav in getting Delhi permits despite being a resident of Noida. Officials of the Enforcement wing of Delhi's Transport department too are in league with transporters like Yadav who manage to ply on Delhi roads with their tacit approval. Sources said that transporters like Yadav manage to play their buses by wangling permits on Delhi addresses. It would be appropriate if the addresses of such dubious owners are verified by the local police whether the addresses furnished by them are genuine or assumed ones.
It has been revealed that Yadav has given his Burari address to Transport department just to manage permits. All the 49 buses owned by Yadav have Burari and Noida addresses. Delhi Government records mention Yadav travels' office in Sant Nagar in Burai area of North district while he resides with his family in Navada village of Noida sector-62.
Delhi Traffic Police and the Transport department the government cannot escape the blame since chartered buses ply in the city during off hours with their connivance. When asked over the issue, a senior official of Traffic Police said that the records of all chartered buses are being verified and the bonafide owners will called for further inquiry.
The prosecution of the buses having violated the traffic rules has been taken on the war footing to allay the fear among general public, he added. There are instructions to keep a close eye on private buses. As a face saving measure Traffic Police has started an internal audit of the performance of its own men and officers. Records have been summoned to identify the black sheep and shunt them out because the force is faced with credibility crisis after the most reprehensible gang rape of the 23 year old para medical student on Sunday night, the official added.
In a crackdown on commercial buses with tinted glasses and curtains in the Capital, Delhi Traffic Police on Wednesday challaned 140 chartered buses.
Out of these, 114 buses were impounded for permit violations and route violations (plying on routes other than they are allowed). Apart from these, 181 other buses plying in the Capital -- including state carriage and state-owned buses -- were prosecuted. Other than this, 548 private vehicles were also prosecuted and the tinted films were removed.
The traffic police said that in the wake of the recent gangrape incident, the drive against tinted film has been initiated with special focus on public transport.
"So far the focus has been on the private vehicles, as till now they have been involved in the heinous crime. The law says that anything, be it the curtains which obstruct the visibility inside the vehicle from outside should be removed and so even the vehicles with curtains are not being spared from December 19. Only the vehicles falling in the Z and Z+ security will be allowed with the curtains for security reasons, as they have been permitted by the Supreme Court and Ministry of Home Affairs," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Wednesday summoned the Delhi Police Commissioner along with the Special Commissioner of Police, Law and Order and other senior officers.
The Home Minister reportedly asked the Police Commissioner to step up measures to control such crimes. The meeting was not very cordial as the Home Minister made his displeasure known to the Delhi Police top brass. They faced several tough questions over their failure to instill confidence among people.
The meeting decided to launch a crackdown to ensure removal of tinted glasses and curtains from chartered and private buses. Besides, the mobile number and licence number of drivers will be written in bold letters on such buses. Henceforth, the onus of parking the buses will squarely be vested with the owners and they will be punished if the bus is found parked at driver's place.
The Home Minister asked the Delhi Police to re-verify the bus drivers and the support staff and record their antecedents and create a database of drivers after verifying their licences. The movement of buses would be kept under electronic surveillance, said a police official who was present in the meeting.
Traffic police are mysteriously absent during evening hours and the traffic of the Capital runs on auto mode. Had traffic police been more proactive, the brutal gangrape that shook the conscience of the nation could have been averted. The old methods of patrolling during nights seem to have been abandoned. Local police, traffic police and the enforcement unit of transport department of the Delhi Government are responsible for policing in the Capital during nights. However, most of them are seen converging at border check posts that are virtual money spinners for them.
There is a mafia at work during nights that collects hefty entry fees at various check points and intersections in the city. Bus operators ply their buses on unauthorised routes with impunity and the law enforcement agencies look the other way, sources maintained.
Delhi Police on its part rues the lack of manpower and officers for night deployment despite the sizeable increase in its strength after 2010 Commonwealth Games.
The police preparedness could be gauged from the fact after the Police Control Room (PCR) was informed about the brutal gangrape at 10.20 and 10.22 pm on Sunday, it went on a wild-goose chase till the next morning.
A new night patrolling regime is being devised and would soon be put into practice to prevent such crimes, a senior Delhi Police official said.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/city/116848-hafta-diary-helps-cops-zero-in-on-rape-bus.html