Criminals At Large

You may have intermittently read posts about how Dubai is much safer than India for women. The posts, often from single women new settlers in the UAE, have been met with agreement as well as derision. The comments have activated the hate-filled manosphere, peppered with some misplaced patriotism and a complete misunderstanding of the actual issue at hand. Men can never truly comprehend the safety, or lack thereof, faced by women. To be able to walk on the streets late at night without looking over your shoulder, not being groped or molested in crowded public spaces, not having to share live location with friends or family — when a woman experiences true freedom of safety, she can’t help but gush about it.

Why do women make such a hue and cry over the lack of safety in India? As an emerging superpower, shouldn’t we have had this one in the bag? As another year comes to a close, as a woman, I’m deeply saddened to report that we still have miles to go. Here are a few instances that should have shocked you. When rape accused and murder convicts walk out on bail, it casts a shadow on the Indian criminal justice system. It’s bad enough that women in India still don’t feel safe, but to add salt to our wounds, rapists such as Kuldeep Singh Sengar and Asaram walk free after serving short durations in prison. Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was also awarded a 40-day parole in August. Asaram keeps getting an extension on his bail on purported medical grounds, while in a total travesty of justice, Sengar’s life sentence in the barbaric Unnao rape case was suspended by the Delhi High Court on December 23. While he has received bail in the case, he continues to be imprisoned in the related matter of the custodial death of the victim’s father. If he manages to wriggle past that one, he will live among civilised society again.

All three notorious men have been involved in gruesome crimes, including, but not limited to, rape, kidnapping, rape of minors, and murder. Two out of three were supposed godmen, and the third a politician. Imagine the misuse of power, laws, and morals at play here. They abused the faith of disciples and wronged the voters and robbed the democratic system. And in spite of their abominable offences, these men are released back into society to possibly continue with their crimes, facing hardly any comeuppance. Now compare the cases of these loathsome men to those of ex-IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt or even student activist Umar Khalid. Bhatt’s allegations regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots were dismissed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). In spite of his alleged whistleblowing or maybe because of it, he found himself persecuted for life in a case of custodial death and earned another 20 years for an alleged drug planting case. His family has been running pillar to post, but no bail is in sight. Meanwhile, Khalid, arrested in September 2020 for his alleged role in the Delhi riots, is still awaiting trial; similarly for co-accused Sharjeel Imam. In all these cases, the law must follow its course, but it strangely seems stricter, more glacial, or simply more stubborn in execution. What’s clear as day, though, is this — heinous crimes and violence committed against women rank abysmally low on the priority of the justice system. Rapists and murderers taste freedom so easily. Even civic society doesn’t bat an eyelid at trial-less incarcerations under UAPA (Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act), while perverse religious and political leaders are let off speedily. The actions simply don’t support the rhetoric. And in that light, these statistics make sense — in 2023, there were almost 4.5 lakh cases of crimes against women; a 4 per cent jump since 2021. If perpetrators keep getting away with it, why would crimes against women ever stop?

Views expressed are personal. The writer is an author and media entrepreneur