Issewal gangrape verdict: ‘Rape victims want justice… not conferment of title of Nirbhaya’

On February 9, 2019, a 20-year old woman from Ludhiana and her male friend were waylaid near village Issewal and the convicts took turns sexually assaulting her till morning of February 10. Judge Sharma, while convicting the six, including one who was then a juvenile but faced trial as an adult as per the court order, in the detailed judgement order hailed the woman for her bravery and fight for justice.

“The blood curdling and petrifying reminiscence of the sinister hour of darkness that gloomed the national capital on December 16, 2012…comes alive with another ‘Nirbhaya’ undergoing appalling agony of humanly inconceivable and diabolic tragedy. Every passing second adds a new ‘Nirbhaya’ for the court…she is now no more the victim herself or an individual ravished. Rather, she is the portrayal reflection of thousands of silent sufferers who are never allowed to shed the cocoon to flutter against such horrendous acts. Battling against all odds, withstanding societal pressure, waylaid by orthodox gender stereotype mindset, conscious of risk of losing dignity at the hands of an apathetic and insensitive society, when victim braves the world, her fight is a cry of justice for millions whose breath of life is sullied and suffocated by such gruesome offences which but for the reasons well known are never brought to light,” read the
judgment.

The court observed that time and again such incidents where women are robbed of their dignity, “sting” the country which boasts of “worshipping girls as Goddesses”.

“…On the threshold of gender equality, the paradox stings the nation boasting of being wedded to the time honoured notions of worshiping girls as Goddess… Dignity, respect, self esteem of every individual cutting across the barriers of sex, caste, colour, creed, nationality is immortal part of non perishable self. Being the richest jewel one can conceive, no one should ever think of painting it in clay as when the human frame is defiled, the purest treasure is lost,” observed Judge Sharma in the order.

Concluding that the six convicts deserve no mercy just because they have “families to support”, the court said: “The barbarity of the offences cannot be over emphasized when the beastly manner of violating physical and mental well being of victims is apparent with forcibly stopping the victims on their way, their wrongful restraint, abduction, voluntarily causing of hurt, outraging the modesty, disrobing the prosecutrix, dacoity, ransom, brutal gang rape, taking away of the articles and exhortation to smash their heads. Being first offenders, having families to support and their age are the threefold pleas raised from the side of convicts to plead for leniency. Court is not unmindful as to what the convicts might lose, if they have to languish behind the bars for whatsoever duration it might be. But the remorse and realization have to set in that crime committed by them has not only created a dent in their lives but also a concavity in the social fabric”.

“Rainbow of mercy may have its own room but allowing undeserved mercy to occupy centerstage may prove counterproductive to the public interest which needs to be strengthened by a string of deterrence inbuilt in the system,” the order further read.

Commenting on the ordeal of the woman and her friend, the court, citing a Supreme Court order, said, “The physical scars may heal up but the mental scars will
always remain. When a woman is ravished, what is inflicted is not merely physical injury but a deep sense of deathless shame”.

Judge Sharma observed that a young girl and boy going out for a drive could have never imagined that the “settling dusk of that cold February evening would
engulf their life with spine chilling darkness”, the traumatic scars of which would haunt them for life time. “The conferment of the title of ‘Nirbhaya’ is not what the victims now desire….Burning of candles in protest or taking out marches would not arrest the concern. The public abhorrence of such crimes needs decisive reflection of the conscience of society through exemplary sentences for such vicious acts. Their only way of hope is to see the face of justice being illuminated by imposition of adequate sentence without permitting mockery and travesty of justice,” said the court.

The court also rejected the claims of the convicts that they belong to poor families stating that the plea needs to be brushed aside “as the measure of punishment for such unscrupulous offences can never stand on the edifice of social or economic status of the convicts”.
Terming that the end of the legal battle is not an end of the battle for the woman, the court said the victim “still has to fight numerous battles at the social front of disgrace, destitution, anguish, ostracisation to overcome psychological wounds, agony, nightmare of fear psychosis to regain the trust and faith in goodness of humanity”.

“Though the mindset of society still have a long way to awakening, yet the message must go loud and clear that there is no disgrace (in) being survivors of sexual violence, the shame in fact has to be on the aggressor and not the victim,” said the court.