Mumbai: Sexual violence goes largely unreported because survivors fear being ridiculed and further stigmatized, the Mumbai sessions court observed on Wednesday and expressed displeasure saying “there is a general assumption that women who face sexual violence are of loose character and hence responsible for the violence.” The court made these observations while sentencing four men to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment for gangraping a woman in January 2019 at Mankhurd.
The court said from the line of cross-examination the finger is pointed toward the survivor, by casting aspersions over her character, because she went out alone in the night to watch Lavni (a Maharashtrian dance) and thereafter had Tadi – Palm wine.
“Much is harped about the conduct of the prosecutrix (survivor) proceeding to watch Lavni and consuming Tadi,” said additional sessions judge Sanjashree Gharat, expressing displeasure over the defence’s attempt to discredit the survivor by casting aspersions on her character.
“The incident of rape in itself causes great distress and humiliation to the victim. Therefore, she will never indulge in making false allegations of rape as it will cause equal distress, humiliation and damage to her,” the court added.
The court convicted the four — Pranay Samadhan Ingale (27), Amol Izhak aka Razak Nirmal (26), Sandip Shivaji Kamble (27), Ajay Ramesh Kamble (26) — for gangraping the 30-year-old widow and sentenced them to 20 years imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of January 18, 2019, when the woman had gone out to watch a Maharashtra folk dance program at Annabhau Sathe Nagar.
While returning home from the program at about 9.00 pm, when she reached near Baban Hotel, one two-wheeler rider dashed her and started arguing with her, the prosecution said.
The biker parked his bike and dragged her into a parked auto-rickshaw, where he thrashed her and sexually assaulted her, it added.
At that time two unknown persons approached and on seeing them, the biker fled away and the two men then took turns to rape her, as she was injured and had a bleeding injury to her shoulder, the woman had said.
The woman had become unconscious because of the physical and sexual assault. On regaining consciousness, she decided to report the incident to the police, but on her way, she was again sexually assaulted by two more men.
After the third sexual assault, she went and got admitted to Shatabdi Hospital. Subsequently, the Mankhurd police registered an FIR after the civic hospital reported the incident to the police.
Police arrested all the accused, including a juvenile, who was reported to the Juvenile Justice Board and prosecuted the other four. The prosecution examined 17 witnesses.
The trial court held that the prosecution had succeeded in proving the case against the four and sentenced them to 20 years imprisonment.
Box: Are we really independent?
The present case reminded the trial court of Mahatma Gandhi’s words – India will be free in the true sense when women feel safe walking in the streets at midnight. The court said, the nation is currently celebrating the 75th year of its Independence, but it is necessary to see if we have really achieved the freedom as envisaged by Mahatma Gandhi.
