Capital Punishment

Yesterday as I was browsing www.timesofindia.com, my eyes fell on the news item which said that a 12 year old was raped by around six seven people for over two years, aged between 24 and hold your breath 71!!. My initial reaction was of shock and disbelief. I was both angry and sad. Angry at those insane animals and sad at the plight of that poor girl. Calling those people animals would be an insult to animals as even animals don’t mate if the female is unwilling. Now the question that arises is whether the character of some people has plummeted even below the degree of say a dog or a donkey?

Rape according to me is the most heinous crime prevalent in the society followed by murder. In murder, the judiciary questions the motive and several other instances are taken into account and sometimes even the actual guilty will walk away scot free if he happens to be very influential, as it happened in the Jessica Lal murder case.
But in rape, what could be any motive other than lust and in some cases revenge. Both the motives cannot be justified under any constitution of any country. In a country like India, the cases of rape have increased exponentially and these rapists have been successful in arm twisting the loopholes in our judiciary to their advantage. This pops up the question as to how the cases of rape and murder should be dealt with.

Just imagine the plight of the girl who was repeatedly used like an object by those thugs. Not only her physique but also her soul might have been equally scarred. A little light into that girl’s life tells us that her parents had divorced and married separate partners and left the minor girl to fend for herself. In such a scenario, even her parents are equally responsible for her plight.

The big question which now comes up is that how such heinous crimes should be dealt with? Going by the speed of our judiciary, she may or may not get justice even if she has attained the age of 80. Till that time she would have lost everything in her life and if she is strong enough she might strive to stay afloat in the hypocritical society which would taunt her and make her life a living hell.

This brings to my mind the concept of capital punishment. Capital punishment is a law in almost all Arab countries with punishments varying from stoning the offender to death, beheading by the sword or even castrating. It is because of these severe punishments that the crime rate especially rape, is at a nadir in most of the Arab world.

Should capital punishment be made a law in India especially in the rape cases? I see no reason why it should not be. If it is made a law, even a hardened criminal will think twice before outraging the modesty of a woman. If we make the people believe that the only punishment for rape is death, then I think nobody would dare to put their life on the line and commit such a heinous crime.

As far as I remember, there was only one case in which a certain Dhanajay was hanged for having raped a girl. But he was hanged six-seven years after he had committed that crime. Here many people might argue that maybe Dhanajay was not too influential so he could not come out of it. But if it would have been some influential person, seven years was enough time to arm twist the case and walk away scot free. Seven years is enough time to intimidate the victim or even a witness to turn hostile as it happens in many cases. Is this the kind of justice we are looking at?

The only deterrent I foresee which could act as a hindrance in capital punishment becoming a law is the hue and cry which would be raised by the numerous pseudo human rights activists around the country. All they look out for is cheap publicity. In the process they try to kill the very objective of capital punishment becoming a law.
I agree that every individual has a right to live and reform himself, but consider the plight of the victim who is raped. For her the very purpose of life is defeated. Even if her rapist transforms himself (which I doubt he will), the girl’s life has changed forever.

The other argument that arises is that how would the girl’s life change if her rapist is killed. My counter argument is that if it is made a law then the rate of rapes would itself decrease as nobody would like to risk their life for anything.
Thanks to the latest technology like DNA testing it is very easy to establish rape and the person who has committed it. If the DNA samples match, then he should be hanged or whatever. The entire process should be speeded up because justice delayed is justice denied. The only time taking process would be catching hold of the criminal in the first place and believing the fact that the police of our country are becoming efficient day by day, then they would be adroit enough to apprehend the criminal quickly.

After implementing capital punishment in rape, it can be extended even to murders which are done without any motives. But that is altogether a separate story. I just hope that the powers concerned are empathic enough to consider the sufferings of the girls who fall prey to this heinous crime of rape and make capital punishment as the only form of justice for rape. This would send shivers down the spines of people who carry out such heinous crimes and it would make the woman feel safer in their own homeland – India.

Women are to be treated with respect. People should realize that every woman is either a daughter or a sister or a mother or a wife. Despite all the reservations and other things, women in India are still looked down upon in the male dominated society. People should not forget that women are at par with men in almost all walks of life. For every Sachin Tendulker, there is a PT Usha, for every Abdul Kalam, there is a Kalpana Chawla and for every Shah Rukh Khan, there is a Madhuri Dixit!!!