NOT THE FIRST TIME: VICTIMS OF POWER

These are names we shouldn’t know; women who should have lived out their lives in peace. Instead, they became headlines when they were raped or murdered by people in powerful positions; and stayed in the headlines as those men evaded justice. In some cases, it was only after a public outcry that the criminals were held to account. In others, even then, all they got was a rap on the knuckles.

JESSICA LAL

In 1999, Manu Sharma, son of Chandigarhbased Congress leader Venod Sharma, shot Jessica Lal dead at a party in Delhi. The model had been tending bar and refused to serve him a drink. During the trial, 32 witnesses turned hostile. Seven years later, Sharma and eight of the twelve accused were acquitted. A public outcry saw the case re- admitted in the Delhi High Court. Sharma was found guilty of murder and is serving a life sentence.

RUCHIKA GIRHOTRA

In 1990, Haryana inspector general of police SPS Rathore got 14-year-old Ruchika alone after a tennis lesson and molested her. Her family approached the police, but no case was filed. As an inquiry report began to do the rounds of government offices, Ruchika was expelled from school. Cases of theft, murder and defamation were filed against her father and 10-year-old brother. Three years later, her brother was detained. He returned home injured. A few months on, he was detained again. Ruchika committed suicide days later, by consuming poison. Rathore was eventually found guilty of molestation, but sentenced to time served. He was 74, the court said, and an old man.

SHIVANI BHATNAGAR

A Delhi journalist, Shivani was found murdered in January 1999. IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma was charged with killing her because he feared she would expose their intimate relationship. Sharma was convicted in 2008 and sentenced to life, but acquitted for lack of evidence on appeal, in 2011.

PRIYADARSHINI MATTOO

Santosh Kumar Singh, son of an IPS officer, was charged and tried for the rape and murder of 25-year-old law student Priyadarshini in her New Delhi home in 1996. A trial court acquitted him in 1999, the Delhi High Court found him guilty in 2006, and sentenced him to death. In 2010, the sentence was commuted to life in prison.

KATIA DARNARD:

In August 1994, Gurkirat Singh, grandson of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, and six of his friends were arrested in the case of the abduction and rape of French tourist Katia Darnard in Mohali. In 1999, a chief judicial magistrate acquitted them, saying the prosecution had not brought in even an iota of evidence.