Instead of creating women's laws more draconian and making this case look like a women's issue just to hoodwink the people , the government should work on reforming the police and reining in the police

 

Everybody who is somebody is now thinking how they can get some mileage from the Ruchika case and this applies from the union ministers to the media. Nineteen years after the incident the Union ministry has suddenly realized that it has failed to give justice to a girl who had died. How about giving justice to Ruchika’s brother who is still alive? His arrest and police torture was a clear example of abuse of power to arrest by the police.
 
However, the Home Ministry has quietly dropped section 41(A) of the CrPC amendment which would have prevented unlawful arrests just to safeguard lawyers bail revenues even though it was approved by the parliament, President and the Law Commission and supported by the chief justice.

How is misuse of power by police and government officials’ women’s issue?
 
Men face most of the brunt of the misuse of power by the police and government day in and day out just like Ruchika's brother did and this time a woman too was victimized by a powerful government official. Had Ruchika been a man there would not have been so much furore and the media would not even have been bothered but since we are all programmed to react more if injustice is with a woman than a man, the country is today boiling with anger on Ruchika's case.

The Ruchika case is not a women’s issue but an issue faced by every Indian irrespective of gender. It is a clear case of the abuse of power to arrest by the police and the misuse of power by the upper echelons of the government. India is a country where the strong dominate the weak and nowhere is this more evident in the upper echelons of Indian Government and politics. High court Judges( Justice Dinakaran ), police officers( SPS Rathore ), Governors( ND Tiwari ) and union ministers( The list is far too long) are all involved in scandals and there has not been a single union minister or judge or police officer, who has been punished yet in the history of the country. Most of the time the abuse is against men and the country does not care.
 
The trial goes on for years and in the end all that remains is court dates and one fine day the accused dies of old age and the case is closed. We saw the same even in the Bofors case where no one was punished and case was closed one fine day with no punishments whatsoever. The Ruchika case is no different. The girl was molested and Indian molestation laws were strong enough to nab and punish the culprit had it been implemented honestly, however the accused being a senior police officer harassed all the members of the family mercilessly and anyone who dared to support them. Had this been a next door boy who had molested the girl he would have been implicated and would have been behind bars very soon, but since this was a government official things moved differently.
 
The people of India never trusted its politicians, police or the pace of justice. The ministers do nothing more than paying lip service. However the people anger has reached boiling point and very soon you might see people revolting against the system. The law ministry knows very well that the inept government, the corrupt police and glacially slow justice system is the sole cause of the suffering of the Ruchika’s family and not the weak laws.
 
However the Law Ministry has found a different scapegoat to nail just to pull the wool over our faces. It has now pointed out that the molestation law of India will be made non-bailable and cognizable. What this means is that the police will not need a warrant to arrest the accessed and the bail will be granted only if the prosecution has no objection to it.
 
By doing this government wants to turn the Ruchika issue into a women’s empowerment issue just to move the lime light from its own inadequacies. It wants to beat the old drum and show that women in India are not adequately protected and making the law stringent will solve all problems. The government however has not recommended a single step to rein in the police and stop the misuse of power to arrest by the police, nor will it take steps to make sure that senior police officers, government officials and ministers do not misuse their power, nor will it take steps to make sure that justice is delivered swiftly. The government believes that making this a women’s issues will pacify the media and the Indians for a while.
 
 
What the harm is making the molestation law draconian?
 
We know that more draconian the laws the more they are misused. The moment the law becomes draconian unscrupulous elements of the society (both men and women) will start misusing the laws on the innocent citizens. Draconian laws have never been able to achieve its target of reducing crime .They are always used in innocent people with an idea of vengeance. Nowhere have we seen a better example than the infamous Anti Dowry law (IPC 498A) which is just what the molestation will become if it is strengthened mindlessly. IPC 498a or the anti dowry law is perhaps the most abused sections of the Indian penal code today with more than 98% of cases filed by women under that section being false.
 
The Supreme court of India has called the misuse of the IPC 498A, “Legal Terrorism “. The Domestic Violence law although not as draconian as IPC 498A is also misused in about 80% of cases according to judicial officers of courts. The misuse of these laws has caused more than 56000 husbands to commit suicide every year which is twice the number of wives. With this sort of track record of implementation of women’s laws, with this sort of corrupt police and slow and anti-men judiciary it is very dangerous to arm the unscrupulous elements of the society with draconian laws.
 
Making molestation non-bailable and cognizable will only increase corruption in the police since now they will pick up anyone on a charge of molestation just for settling scores. It will increase bribes and misuse of power to arrest. Any person (man or women) wanting to take vengeance on another can file a molestation case (or force a girl to file a molestation case) and put the other person behind bars for years till the case is disposed.
 
This will also lead to increased bribery and police assisted legal extortion of money from the accused just as the case is with IPC 498A. How will the government make sure that the innocent are not cast in the dragnet and there is no misuse of the law? Till date not a single person who has misused 498A or DV act has been punished.
 
 
Recommendations:
 
Instead of creating women’s laws more draconian and making this case look like a women’s issue just to hoodwink the people , the government should work on reforming the police and reining in the police, so that they are not able to torture people like Ruchika’s brother was tortured on false pretexts. Enforce section 41(A) not thinking about safeguarding lawyers bail revenues. Weed out corruption from the police. Make the Judicial system faster so that men and women can get justice faster in any case. Make the laws gender neutral so that men too can get protection from harassment and domestic violence just like the women do. Just inciting the people and blindfolding them will not work for very long Mr Moily.