Saturday, May 18, 2013

Is killing the killer the answer to contain rape in India?


I personally do not endorse the idea of ‘killing the killer ‘ and considering it to be a deterrent measure against rarest of the rare cases. Because living in a civilized world and considering myself to be representing the civilized community, I cannot bring myself to justify that merely by aping the killer and making him pay back in the same coin would serve to be lessons for aspiring killers.

I really see no logic to it.  Neither do I find any logic in the sane world marching on streets demanding ‘Killers to be hanged until death’ for rape crimes. What a brutality of humankind from people who are examples of sanity and civilization. People keep on protesting, shouting giving examples of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shariah Law where rape and murder convicts are killed in broad daylight so that it serves “a lesson for those daring to ever commit the crime”.

I know just imagining the thought of forgiving someone who could be as brutal as the Delhi rape case perpetrators is also beyond imagination. ‘We are not saints’ one of the girls protesting on the streets against cases of rape was heard shouting. ‘Unless criminals pay for their crimes they will not learn’.

Rape is indeed an act of severe violence that even if the victims survive they would be almost dead for their entire life. I can say this with conviction because I am a woman, with a very small daughter living in constant fear of not going out alone to certain places, living alone or even thinking of going out alone at night for the most of my life. I know and have been brought up to believe that I am a vulnerable section of the society and need to be only in safe places under constant care and support of male members of the family.

But here I am talking of something else. I am talking about criminals whether they should be paid back in the same coin or not. So first this story of a criminal I almost saw being killed.

On 14th August 2004, teen rape convict Dhananjay Chatterjee was hanged early morning at 4:00a.m at Alipur jail amidst outcry from human rights activists against hanging the guy who had served fourteen years in jail for the crime he had committed. I as a young journalist had waited for his death along with fellow reporters outside the Alipore jail that night in August. In between cups of tea the whole media contingent waited and waited until morning to have a glimpse of the man who had pulled the noose and take shots of the man who had just been to the gallows and was gone.

I had really then wanted him to die and be punished as harshly as possible for the crime he had committed to a fourteen year old way back fourteen year ago. The victim a little younger to me would have been almost grown up to be like me had she lived.

But then I felt the eerie surrounding the death of the criminal. I was also imagining that the perpetrator would have also not been the same man after all these years. Who knows he was already a changed man? He had spent his fourteen years in a correctional home (jail).  Was it anyway civilized to do the same to him (kill him) now after he has been through this major correction process of his life.

It is true…his action deserved severest punishments and his action could not be undone. But this was also true how come we remain civilized by answering him in the same coin.

I have sincerely no sympathies for Dhanajay. He took away a precious life…just as I have one. And I strongly relate to Hetal the victim who lost her precious life only because she was a woman…weak and fragile to be killed so easily. Dhanajay remained weak, aged, fragile in the same way after so many years and the stronger civilized world of us was taking away his life.

That moment I felt it was simply the different viewpoints that altered the scene of crime. We were on the other side doing the same as what Dhanajay the powerful criminal that fatal night felt while killing Hetal.

This is not again about equating both the actions. One was the action and the other reaction. Killing a person who is in custody or already convicted of his crime is no big deal. He is weak, dependent and prisoner…what more can be taken out of him.

But now the question also arises as to how his execution can prove deterrent…Rather what appeared to me was the fact that merely Dhanajay’s prosecution led him to the gallows. Now if that be the case then criminals of his stature would now not just commit the crime but also try to evade the law. Here then there will be more chances of committing double crimes of not just the action as such but also the cover up.

Yes, rape as a crime has to be deterrent. But how is it possible in a country where one citizen (women) has restricted permits to visit places at restricted timing. I believe rape as a crime is against a sexual community with the idea to suppress, overpower and eradicate the very existence of womanhood.

This definitely cannot be stopped by punishing people who have committed violent sex crime by giving violence in return.  The need is to stop the crime first and then hunt for criminals.

We have to stop the crime and rectify the criminal and not do the opposite of rectifying the crime scene and stopping the criminal. The latter will definitely not serve to be a great lesson to be taught.