Recent incidents of rape in the city and the National Capital Region (NCR) and the subsequent brutality and hatred towards the victims have stirred an otherwise sterile police as they grapple with the situation. There are spur of the moment decisions as the rapists are wreaking vengeance on the victims. The Badaun incident is a case in point where the rapists hanged the victims. In one such incident reported from Noida, the accused persons set the house of the victim on fire in their attempt to intimidate her from going ahead in the case.
Analysis of the incidents of crime against women depicts a serious picture as the post rape; events have taken a nasty and brutal turn. The sole reason behind this is a substantial increase in the agitation level. Youths and accused men in the cases of crime against women are openly coming out and threatening victims despite Supreme Court of India’s clear guidelines about providing safety to the victims and the witnesses as well. Not just this, they make sure that to get away with things they also harm the family members so that the victims are brought in to submission. There is no denying the fact that the crime against women has shown an upward trend. What is more sensible is that the people are coming forward and registering the complaints, said a senior Delhi Police officer. Social activist and Retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Kiran Bedi opined that the rise in aggression level is one of the reasons for this as well. “Social control mechanism is getting weakened and also people are not ashamed of anything. Upbringing has become individualistic. There is a big change in the social controls and the generalisation shift is another issue. Abuse of internet because of easy accessibility is another problem,” said Bedi.
Psychologists on the other hand believe that the brutality and aggression has more to with social factors rather than the psychology. “It is more the sociology and the audacity of an individual and absence of fear of law is another factor. The feeling that ‘I will get away with it’ makes things go brutal in their manner. With full respect to the law, I would like to say that making strict laws is just a knee-jerk reaction but implementation is the need of the hour,” said Nimesh Desai, Director Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences. laws on paper are good but execution is required he further added.
Former Delhi Police Commissioner who supervised the fastest ever investigations in the horrendous and bone chilling December 16 gang-rape under highly trying circumstances said that brutality post rape was not new. It had happened in past too. He cited the example of a brutal rape committed on a hapless girl in Chhawla village of South-West district. It was reported in February 2012 and the nature of injuries inflicted on the girl was gory. The rapists had inserted a broken beer bottle after gang-raping her. It was before Kumar took over as the Delhi Police chief. The case was investigated by Delhi Police and all the accused were later awarded death sentences. Their appeal has been turned down by Delhi High Court.
This was much before when December 16 took place. This rape did not grab the attention of the national media since it had taken place in a village but hell broke loose in the December 16 gang-rape. Rapists inflicting wounds on the victim is not a new phenomenon as it existed in the past too, Kumar added.