Hyderabad Horror: Outcry over rape and murder of 27-year-old; what has changed on the ground?

It always takes a gruesome crime, unfortunately, to jolt the nation into action and uncover existing skeletons in the law enforcement’s closet.

The horrific rape and murder of a 27-year-old vet near Hyderabad has brought back memories of ghastly crimes committed against women in the last decade or so, and several, unjustly so, lack closure.

As chilling details of the case emerged today, the Upper House of Parliament was rocked by an uproar, where legislators demanded capital punishment for the perpetrators. An outraged Jaya Bachchan, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Samajwadi Party (SP), said, “I think these people (the perpetrators) need to be brought out in public and lynched.”

“The government needs to give an answer, and a definite answer,” she added.

Sharing the same sentiment, Roopa Ganguly told CNN News18 that the accused should be hanged in public. “Hanging should be a spectacle so that everyone sees it,” she added.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy called out the callousness of the state police. He said when he met the family of the victim, he was told that they were made to run from one police station to another on account of the crime not falling within their jurisdiction. “They wasted one hour in taking the complaint. By then, the girl was dead. The police didn’t do its work and is now issuing a meaningless advisory,” he said.

National Commission of Women Chairperson Rekha Sharma pointed out that “these incidents happen when there is not enough policing”. She said, “Why no advisories for men, who are doing these crimes? Why should only women listen to this?”

Dozens of people gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to protest. Wearing black bands, around 40-50 people took to the streets and were seen carrying placards reading "we want justice" and "hang the rapists".

Amrita Dhawan, the organiser of the protest, said, "I am organising this protest not as a politician but as someone who is concerned about what is happening in our society. Why did we need another Nirbhaya to talk about how unsafe women are?"

"Nirbhaya's rapists are still in jail and have not been hanged. Those in jail are living their life, getting food and sleep but what about the families of the victims, whose lives are ruined forever?" she asked.

Described above is also a set paradigm in the aftermath of a heinous crime. However, the outcry doesn’t seem to proportionately transform into measures that could mitigate such crimes. It often gets diffused in the political whataboutery and passing the buck.

Tragic cases that rocked Delhi await closure

The December 2012 gang rape in Delhi, a crime so barbaric it shook the nation’s conscience. The accused, who raped a 23-year-old physiotherapy student in a moving bus in the national capital, committed brutalities against her and left her to die on the side of the road, naked on a cold December night, have still not been executed.

The Delhi Police had arrested the six accused – one of them a juvenile – in 2012 and charged them with murder, rape, unnatural offences and other sections of the Indian Penal Code. In 2013, a fast track court found them guilty and awarded them capital punishment. The decision was upheld by the Delhi High Court the same year, and the Supreme Court in 2014. The apex court, in 2018, dismissed their review petitions. One accused, Ram Singh, hanged himself in jail; while the juvenile was given three year’s imprisonment in a reform facility. The rest are lodged in Tihar Jail.

Now, the top court awaits a response to the mercy petition filed by Vinay Kumar – one of the accused – to the President of India. The Delhi government, in its recommendation, has said that the clemency petition should be “rejected” and “exemplary punishment” should be given to “deter” others from committing such “atrocious” crimes.

The victim’s parents have also moved the court to fast track the death penalty.

Another case that comes to mind is the murder of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who was shot dead on September 30, 2008 on her way back home late at night. The police charged three men for the crime, who were subsequently convicted in the murder of IT professional Jigisha Ghosh.

The trial is currently pending before a Sessions Judge in the Saket District Court.

Jigisha Ghosh, who worked in Noida, was abducted and killed on March 18, 2009 soon after she was dropped by her office cab to Vasant Vihar in South Delhi at around 4 am.

The accused had taken her jewellery, two mobile phones, and her credit and debit cards. Her body was found three days later in Surajkund in Haryana.

The accused were sentenced to death by a trial court in 2016, however in 2017, the Delhi High Court commuted the death penalty to a life term. Now, the case awaits the Supreme Court’s final decision.

Pending Cases

As per the latest NCRB report, about 3.59 lakh cases of crimes against women have been reported in 2017. The definition of ‘crime against women’ includes murder, rape, dowry death, suicide abetment, acid attack, cruelty against women and kidnapping, according to the report.

Of the total, about 10 percent cases included rape. However, only one in four cases ended up in conviction, shedding light on the painfully slow justice system for rape victims in the country.

As of 2014, over 31,000 rape cases are pending in High Courts alone.

Nirbhaya Fund

The Nirbhaya Fund, which was formed by the Centre for the safety of women, and named (an honorary name given to her, which means fearless) after the 2012 Delhi rape victim.

From 2015 to 2019, a sum of Rs 1813 crore was disbursed by the Centre. Until 2018, Rs 854.66 was disbursed until 2018, for which utilisation details have been made available by the Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani.

As per the data, of the Rs 850 crore, a mere Rs 165.48 crore have been spent by various states and Union Territories, which is less than 20 percent of the corpus.

The states that least utilised the funds include Maharashtra, West Bengal and Delhi; while Chandigarh fared the best in utilizing funds across various schemes for the safety of women.

Litigation

Even though laws are being made stricter – POCSO Act amended to award death penalty to perpetrators of heinous crimes on minors, Juvenile Justice Act, etc., their ability to deter criminals remains questionable.

The day after the vet was raped, killed and her body burnt, another charred body was found in the same area.

Another case is from Uttar Pradesh, where a minor was raped and set ablaze in Sambhal district of Uttar Pradesh.

Another teenager, on her way to celebrating her birthday, was gang raped in Coimbatore. The perpetrators even videographed the act.

With the crime rate continuing to soar, and the crime continuing to get more gruesome, a stronger and a smarter deterrent is the dire need of the hour, in addition to an alert and more equipped police force.