BASIC ADMINSTRATION OF JUSTICE IS UNDER ATTACK IN INDIA
Amritananda Chakravorty
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2018-04-17 12:43
In the last one week, the country has been rocked by the reports of two horrific rapes, one in Kathua, Jammu & Kashmir, and the other one in Unnao, Uttar Pradesh, which indicate the considerable complicity of the State/politician machinery with the accused persons, and the impunity with which law is violated. In Kathua, Jammu, an eight year old girl, from the Bakarwal (nomadic) community was kidnapped, sedated, gangraped, tortured for over eight days in a temple and eventually killed. The crime was apparently masterminded by the Sanji Ram, a retired government employee, as part of a larger communal conspiracy to ‘terrorise’ the Bakarwal community to force them out of the area. The other accused includes four police officers, including Special Police Officers, Deepak Khajuria, and Surinder Kumar, and police officials, Anand Datta and Tilak Raj. Sanji Ram’s son and nephew who is juvenile are said to be involved in the perpetration of the crime. The macabreness of the crime is highlighted by the fact Deepak Khajuria was apparently assisting the police to find the missing victim, while he himself continued to rape the girl in the temple.