onoura e en

Harsher laws and stricter punishments are needed for crimes against women

'Judge Jagdisb Sinha found dead'. Every newspaper in tbe country carried tbi~ news in bo.ld print o o its front page on :Monday morning.

The five-word headline shocked the nation to its core. Only three days earlier, he had been hailed as a nationa.l hero in all chose newspapers aftet he deLivered hi s judgement oo the infamous gang rape case that n ot only rocked India bur reverberated around the world. He was on every one's lips, on TV chat shows and editorial co lumns - all heaping praise on him. \Xlomen's groups in capital cities marched along roads tO the local high courts bailing Sioha's judgement and demanding stern action against perpetrators of violence against women. Politicians of all hues, with an eye on the female franchise in the forthcoming election, were profuse in their pra ise for the judge.

U ntil a coup le of months ago, no one outside Pama's lega.l circles had heard of Judge Sinha, bm his name became a byword the moment he was named co hear the Pabu rape case. The national media wem inco ove rdrive in ana.lysing every case he bad heard in his judicial caree_r, dissected every judgement he had delivered. They built up a profile of him as a softie who would prefer a reformist roure to a ha rd - line verdict since he believed that even tbe worst hrnrnm will have a soft spot and that should be given a chance to sprout. So it came as a l1uge surprise when he delivered, at the end of his 180page judgement, a death sentence for two of the th ree accused. Legal pundits and the public were, at best, predicting a life sentence. The crudity of the crime, the ca11ousness of the crimina.ls, bad publicity wodd - wide a1Jd the wrath of women groups forced the court system to fast- track the ca se in a country where even a prime minis ter's killing took a decade co come up for bearing. No womier tbe national rage turned into a rave on hearing the sentence from Sinha ' the softie'.

But within three days the celebratory mood mrned sombre.

Speculation was so rife that ever)'one bad a theory for Sioha's sudden death.

"He had a weak heart chat couldn't stand such a harsh trial".

"One culprit's father, a local poli tical strongman, organised this".

Jagdish Sinha was living on his ow.n in a modest bungalow after losing his wife to cancer some yea r s ago His cook cum domestic assistaoc Ganga Ram, found his body when be turned up for work on Sunday. Sinha, after an illustrious career, was onl)' a few months from his recirement and the g rue so me rape case was one of bis last.

G1uesome was an understatement to describe the traged y that struck on tbat fateful February evening in a passenger train on its war co ics 6nal destination Patna. With most of the passengers havi ng alighted at previous stacions, the onlr two persons .left in that coach were Shanta, a pretty junior nurse returning home from work at conununicy health centres in di stant villages, and an elderly ma.n Ram Kishan Laxman, wearing thick glasses. As the train pulled out of the last station before Patna, three young men jumped on and sat next to Shanta. She knew one of them, Manohar, casually He Ji\7 ed a few streets from her bumble cottage. He was known by Shanta co make unwelcome advances, but she ignored him. As be and his friends sat o n either side of her she felt apprehensive but did not want to show it. But within minutes they set about executing their carefully sketched p lan.

The o ld man beard the commocion and easily guessed what was happening. He shouted, "A.rre chqkras, k;)1a karthe ho" The youngest of the three, Suresh, rushed and stood io front of Laxman with a pen knife. In one swift move Manohar ripped Shanta's blo use and stuffed her mouth and went about fol6.lling his fiendish nrge as his buddy Salman held her down. N~-.,:t Manohar and Salman swapped their roles. Then Salman called Suresh to have his turn taking his p lace in front of the o ld man. As Suresh was of slim build, Shanta thought she could throw him off balance and wriggled vigorously. Manobar tightened h is grip on her chest, so bard diac she choked and within seconds breathed her last. He panicked at this unexpected turn; as the train was only some ten minutes away frorn Pabia, he dragged ber body and pushed it o uc die door hop ing it would fall in the river below and ne ver be found. P oor Laxman coc1ldo't see any of this in the winter darkness.

On arriving at Pabia, the boys jtmiped out and disappeared in the crowd. Laxman, as he slowly walked towards the exit g ate, saw a girl briskly wal king ahead and assumed she was the girl subjected co sexual assault and was running away from the wicked boys. On reaching home he told his daughter of the incident and decided to go to the police next morning Shanta's mother, in her sixties, wondered why her daug hter hadn 't come home. She consoled hersel f chat she had probabl y missed tbe train and decided to sray at the community health centre as she had done once before.

Next day the driver of a pas si ng train noticed a bod y on the track.side and called the station mascer who informed die police. In the post- mortem, it was found the girl had been repeatedly raped and choked. The news spread .like wildfi re sparking mas s demonstrations in every major city demanding stern puni sh ment for the culprits. \'(Tith overseas media giving saturated coverage the State Government felt d1e heat and pressured the police co find the culpri ts. Learning the sad end of che girl, Laxman gave the police a good description o f the two b oys who stood in front of him. The police were hesitant co take him seriously as they thought with his thick glasses he would have had difficulty with his sight, rbat too in the winter dusk. Then Laxman drew pictures of d1e two boys exactly as he described earlier. The police swung into action as the younger one was a known pick- pocket. Under rigorous questio ning Suresh gave a full account of rbe sordid incident. The police soon found the ocher two and arrested d1em.

The case was fast- tracked. Manohar's fad1er, Mu.ralidar Rawal, a much-feared local political identity of the ruling party was confiden t of getting his son om by bribing, brow-beating or bur ying the judge. He hired cop crimina.l lawyer Jerbram Malani, who was equally cocky of blowing the accoum of rbe prosecution's main witness, an o ld man who did not acma!Jir see the incident but could describe the accused in fine detail, and a pick- pocket who the police would have forced co admit d1e offence

After grilling od1er prosecucio n witnesses, Malani asked the star witness, Laxman, his trump questio n as co h ow he could describe in such great detail the boys seen in dim light on a ,vinte r evening.

"Sir, 1 worked for 40 years as a cartoonist io Patna's leading daily The .'ierm;h/igbt. Ir i s a cartoonist's trait, m be able to p ick the feamres of someone even without seei ng them in person. These two boys stood in front of me for some time and it was more than enough for me. Here is a caricature of yo u, sir," RK Laxman concluded , producing a piece o f paper.

Jaws dropped all around. The face was sealed for the accused. Sinha debated within himself for over a week and decided on a fiveyear jail for term for Suresh dL1e to his being be.low age and bis cooperation wicb the police, giving hope for reform

'1 recommend the dearb sencence for the two older boys since viol ence against women has gone beyond sha me in a Land thatgained its freedom without a sing.le act of violence. Regrettably someone bas to be se t as an example," bis judgemem concluded. ***

But not conclus ive was the judge's au topsy reporr. There was no indication of murder. Possibl y it was death caused by several medicati o ns he was raking for his heart condition after a triple- b y- pass six months ago, or, shock caused by his own verdict against hi s strong faith in human goodness.

A fortnight after performing d1e last rites for his father, Sachin Sinha, remrned ro bis IT job in Silicon Valley. There was a letter waiting for him w ww.in d ia n li nk.c o m. au ij

''i\1.y dear S arhi11, For the first time I have todtfJ given death sentence to //vo bo_ys for their cri,11c; 110! 11111rde1; but rape causing the girl} death. IWhm T1vas in IT!)' thi1ties, T did a si1J1i!ar shm111f11/ acl q11 a)'Otmg 111111,arried maid who killed herself upon jallingpregnant T wa.r the ca11sefor her death. [ give ll!)'Se/f no1v a sil!lilar pmtish111mt. T haJ1e left 11n trace. Tt is the on!y ho11011mhle md T can think ef. T loveJ'O!I ".