A Delhi court, while acquitting a man of rape charges, posed the question— whether persons acquitted of rape charges ‘honourably’ should be addressed as ‘rape case survivors’. The observation came in a case where the alleged rape victim had retracted her statement and turned hostile in court.
Additional Sessions Judge Nivedita Anil Sharma, while pronouncing the verdict, stated, “I would also like to mention that in recent times, a new expression is being used for a rape victim — that is a rape survivor. A woman, who has levelled allegations of rape, is now called rape survivor.
In the present case, the accused has been aquitted of the charge of rape as the prosecutrix retracted and turned hostile. In the circumstances, should an acquitted accused, who has been acquitted honourably, be addressed as a rape case survivor?”
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The judge also observed that there is much to “ponder” about the “veracity” of the rape cases. The court also made observations on the “hue and cry” being raised that courts are not convicting the rape accused and said courts are not “swayed by emotions” and “reporting in the media”.
“It would not be out of place to mention that today, there is public outrage and a hue and cry is being raised everywhere that courts are not convicting the rape accused… it should not be ignored that the court has to confine itself to the ambit of law as well as testimonies of the witnesses and is not to be swayed by emotions or reporting in the media,” the judge said.
The observations come in a case where Ashwani Jaswal was accused of raping the woman after promising to marry her. Jaiswal was also accused of criminal breach of trust as it was alleged the victim has given approximately Rs 90 lakh and, when she demanded the money back, he refused.
However, the alleged victim, while deposing before the court, retracted and said the accused had not committed any offence and that she had filed the complaint before the police at the instance of her “well wisher” and on his “wrong advice”. She also deposed before the court that they had established physical relations with her consent.
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“The alleged victim, who is the star witness, has turned hostile and has not supported the prosecution case and, more importantly, has not assigned any criminal role to the accused. The prosecution case is closed,” the court said.
Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies.
With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health.
His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award.
Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time.
Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More
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