Justice Loses Character If It Becomes Revenge
"No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man's
permission when we ask him to obey it. Obedience to the law is demanded as a
right, not asked as a favor." ~ Theodore Roosevelt
According to the National Crime Records Bureau Report in 2016, of the 3.38 lakh
crime cases against women, rape cases constitute 11.5% of them.But out of every
4 reported cases only 1 case ends up with conviction. This is just a record of
reported cases, in many cases the crime never reaches the police station.And
that 1 case which goes to the court lingers on for decades and no one is
answerable.
Most of the time this delay leads to tampering of evidence, political pressure,
public rage and even proves to be a threat for the witnesses.Like The Nirbhaya
case, despite political and public pressure at the highest level, it took more
than seven years to reach closure. Severity of the case or national outrage also
does not make any difference except as seen in the recent Hyderabad Police
encounter.
On November 27, a young doctor Priyanka Reddy, who worked in the kolluru
village, went missing on Wednesday night and was found dead and charred in the
outskirts of Hyderabad on Thursday morning.According to reports, Priyanka parked
her scooter at the toll plaza and took a cab to the hospital.Accused saw
Priyanka doing so and made a proper plan to rape her. When she returned she saw
that her rear wheel of the scooter was punctured.
According to the CCTV footage, two men offered her help in fixing the punctured
vehicle and they took her scooter for getting it fixed. Both of them returned
after a short period and claimed that all nearby repair shops were closed and
they helped her by taking it to another shop, according to the Police. Priyanka
called her sister Bhavya around 9 o'clock to discuss what happened and said that
two unknown persons offered her help in fixing the two-wheeler.
During the communication, she said some lorry drivers were sitting there in
their lorries nearby and she was not feeling safe and secure. A little later
Bhavya observed that Priyanka's phone was switched off.After waiting for some
period, her family and sister went to the toll plaza to find her, but she wasn't
anywhere near. Around 11:00 PM, they filed a missing complaint at Shamshabad
police station near the toll plaza.
At first the police officials presumed that Priyanka had gone out with someone
known and started asking the family if she had a boyfriend and asked them about
all her connections with men, because of which three police officials have also
been suspended for delaying the filing of the FIR. After the complaint was filed
and police started doing the investigation on Thursday morning Priyanka's
charred body was found 25Km away from the toll plaza.Priyanka's dead body was
recognized by the necklace and clothes she was wearing on that day.
When the news reached the media, it became a hot topic. "Justice for Priyanka
Reddy" slogans, and hashtags became a new trend. Everybody somehow or the other
wanted to give their opinion and in the end wanted the accused to be hanged as
soon as possible.
Protest demonstrations broke out as the horror crime left the entire state
shocked to the core. This led to various rallies and protests via teenagers
demanding justice. Many Celebrities, actors, cricketers etc, displayed their
grievances via tweets and posts on social media. A lot of social outrage was
visible which was putting a lot of pressure on the police officials and
ministers of Telangana.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao assured people that a fast-track
court would hear the case and justice would be provided soon.The incident
triggered widespread criticism of the law-and-order situation in the state. As
public figures arrived at the colony in Shamshabad on , angry residents locked
its gates and held up placards that read: "No media, no police, no outsiders",
and "no sympathy, only action, justice".
On December 6, Telangana Police made headlines at National level,with the
sensational killing of the four accused in an encounter. The police Commissioner
of Cyberabad, VC Sajjanar told the media that they reached the crime spot at
early hours to enact the same crime scene again where the accused suddenly
snatched weapons from the police and fired at the police, and then the police
open fired in retaliation which resulted in the death of the four accused on the
spot.
Now the question arises whether justice has really been done or not ? If we
follow the Approach of Rule of Law then no justice has been done because the
situation as specified by the police proves the fact that the encounter was fake
or preplanned.
This is because if the police really wanted to investigate why would they take
the criminals along at the early hours when nobody would be around and if we
assume that some genuine motive was there, wouldn't the accused be accompanied
by a lot of officials which makes it practically impossible for the four unarmed
men to attack the police and if we further believe that maybe even this
happened, surely not all four would have taken the weapon and attacked.
Why in the end none of them survived alive ? Why were all four killed on the
spot by the police? Thus it becomes very difficult and hardly digestible to
consider the whole encounter true.
No Natural Justice was provided to the accused , none of them was heard in the
court. If this is the idea of justice then what is the need of courts and
judges? All justice should be done without investigation. Now the families of
the accused demand justice saying that their son were killed in order to save
the real culprits and the accused in reality were actually innocent.
All of it has been done in order to tamper with the evidence as grieved by the
family in the 36 page writ petition filed by them. While a lot of people feel
that justice has been served, some would have liked the traditional route of the
law. People are no longer immune to the fact that such horrific things are still
happening and in most cases, rapists roam free. In this world where everything
is instant, people want instant justice as well. But in our country rule of law
is followed, instant justice means revenge and thus comes under the rule of men
which is against our constitution.
Two wrongs don't make a right is rightly said quote. But some people support the
encounter stating that if the case would have gone to the court it would have
taken years till the actual conviction would have taken place just like in the
Nirbhaya rape case of Delhi where the accused were alive even after long
traumatic wait of seven years. No doubt the argument stands valid that Indian
court system lacks a lot in time basis but this instance sets a dangerous
precedent for our future cases.
And if now the police are left free and no action is taken, who guarantees that
no such police encounter would take place in future? And what if the accused
were only suspects and not actual guilty culprits, and the real culprits still
move freely outside.
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