India is finding ways to set legal precedent in the case of gang rape happened in Delhi last month. The victim of the gang rape succumbed to her injuries after she was raped by six men when she was coming back late at night from a cinema hall with a male friend of hers. The couple watched “Life of Pi” in the cinema and took a local bus to reach home. On the bus, the six men beat up her male friend and raped the girl. Her attempts to resist their rape angered the crew to such an extent that they felt a need to mutilate her body to such an extent that she was unable to recover in the hospital.
Her death resulted in a nationwide outcry in the form of massive protests. Even in the 21st century, women are insecure in India. According to an independent report, a staggering 600 cases of rape were reported in 2012 in Delhi alone. The Indian government is trying its utmost to put to an end such inhumane incidents, but successes have been limited and difficult to come by.
The police has charged the five adults with rape, murder, abduction and robbery. The sixth participant, only 17 years of age, is also suspected of raping the victim as well as wielding iron bars into her body, causing fatal intestinal injuries that resulted in her death. The police claims that the five adults, if found guilty, would be awarded a death sentence. The sixth accused, the teenager, however, would merely be awarded three years of imprisonment.
The differences in sentences of adult rapists and teen rapists have caused a great deal of controversy all over India. According to a law passed in 2000, teenagers between the ages of 16 and 18 must be charged with adult punishments if they commit a crime. In a conference of India’s police chiefs and top bureaucrats in New Delhi this month, participants shed light on why the teenager would be subject to a reduced sentence despite the 2000 law.
According to the police, the suspect teenager dropped out from a school in Uttar Pradesh and was brought to Delhi by a relative where he was working at a street restaurant. His family assumed he died in the city as he stopped sending money home. The suspect had been living in Delhi for six years when the rape incident occurred.
Bhuwan Ribhu, a child activist talking about the involvement of a 17 year old in a rape case, argued “this case has exposed our failure as a society in protecting our children and women. First a boy is trafficked and exploited — later he turns to crime to change the power equation by finding a weaker person to dominate and control. We must stop this vicious cycle.”
Not everybody shares the same kind of sympathy for the 17 year old. “Here is the boy that the whole country hates. I feel guilty that I am even looking after him,” said an anonymous senior official who was not authorized to speak publicly. The official, who said he had participated in demonstrations against the gang rape, went on to say, “he had crossed all the limits of humanity. The staff feels deeply conflicted here. Our blood boils when we think of what he did.”
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