|
Here comes another drama on the mother of all stages: read India. You may think it as a sequel to the long drawn opera of Jessica Lal; but with a little twist. While the Jessica Lal drama had overt political connotations, in the present case the convict is a law keeper, non other than the rank of Inspector General of Police, who eventually got promoted to the top cop’s post and even got police medal. Here I am not interested in going into the details of the case, the abominable conduct of a police officer or the trials and tribulations that the family of the victim had to undergo as they were much publicized in the media; (but nevertheless I will just provide a bird’s eye view on it for reader’s sake). What tortures my brain most is, I can’t help myself refrain from finding similarities between Shivani Bhatnagar’s case and Ruchika’ case.
The similarities between the two cases: Ruchika and Shivani Bhatnagar are glaring. In both cases the victims were girls and the convicts were top police officers. If in case of Shivani’s case, the police officer was sentenced to life imprisonment then why in Ruchika’s case the convict Mr Rathore was given only 6 months sentence? Circumstantial evident may point to the fact that in case of Bhatnagar’s case the police officer actually orchestrated the murder while in the later case it was a case of molestation only. Agreed; but we should not disregard the abominable acts that followed after the alleged molestation. Mr Rathore took a personal interest in harassing the family to save his reputation. It had been on records (by a CBI official) that Mr Rathore had actually tried to bribe the CBI official to help(!) his cause. Besides at his behest the victim’s brother was falsely convicted tortured and detained illegally for two months while he may not fall into any of criteria of preventive detention. The victim’s friend and the later’s father were harassed when they took up the victim’s case for humanity sake. Mr Rathore’s vindictive action taken report (ATR) goes long. Finally, after long 19 years when Mr Rathore lost the case he was merely sentenced for SIX LONG MONTHS!!
Let me remind my readers that Mr Rathore was convicted for molestation. But let’s see what other crimes he had done:
-
Abetment of suicide: his action prompted the teenager to commit suicide
-
Illegal detention: Violation of Habeas Corpus and article 21 for the victim’s brother
-
hooliganism: his abominable action against Ruchika’s friend Aradhana
-
Bribery and conspiracy for preventing the due course of law
And there may be many others. But we only find the charge of molestation was slapped on him. Isn’t it a mockery of justice, that too after 19 long years?
I think a special mention should be made about the role of Ruchika’s school. The school did expel her without citing any reason, while they should have at least supported the girl morally if not anything beyond that. It is up to the readers to decide who is a bigger evil Mr Rathore or the School authorities!!
Ok Now what? Shall we wait for another Ruchika… or we should do something!! People say bureaucracy is corrupt, politicians are corrupt, police is corrupt… but I think all these are clichéd statements. We know they are corrupt but so what? When are we going to rise ourselves out of the cocoon of self comfort? Jessica Lal to Shivani Bhatnagar to Ruchika is a long journey and should we not put an end to it? I feel proud when, I see Mr Anand Praksh (Ruchika’s friend’s father) who took up the case much detriment to his career and family after Ruchika’s family distanced themselves away from the case in the wake of unprecedented harassment by the vindictive Police officer, but at the same time I feel very ashamed of myself when I read the news that Mr Rathore not only got promotions in his life even when the case is going on against him on the high court, he happened to get a police model and last but not the least escaped away with a six month sentence for which he got immediate bail also.
Trackback(0)
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
