210 Days, 75 Witnesses, 2 Survivors
The newly amended law spurs landmark convictions in Mumbai’s shocking Shakti Mills gang-rape cases
It is only now, with a secured conviction, that emotional healing can begin for the victims,” says Himanshu Roy, former joint commissioner of police (Crime) and current ATS chief, under whose tenure the investigation of the Shakti Mills gang-rape cases began. A 21-year-old photojournalist was gang-raped on August 22, 2013, and a 19-year-old telephone operator on July 31, 2013, at the dilapidated Shakti Mills compound in Mumbai. Until March 20, 2014, when Principal Sessions Judge Shalini PhansalkarJoshi sentenced all five accused in both cases of gang rape, and four in the case of the telephone operator to life terms, neither victim believed the system would work.
Filled with anger and coping with bouts of depression, the photojournalist would repeatedly say: “I want to see them brought to justice.” Friends and colleagues often told her not to hope against hope. Trials could go on forever. What if the accused got away with a light sentence and lashed back at her for deposing? The telephone operator, promised marriage by her companion on that fateful night but later abandoned, was hit by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, lacking social or extended family support. She was so overwrought that she requested the judge to allow her to slap the accused during her deposition. She has since lapsed into a “vegetative state”, Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam stated in his arguments for a life term.
It has taken six months and 20 days from incident to sentence, during which 75 witnesses deposed on behalf of the victims. Nobody, not even the accused— who perpetrated the crime on multiple victims, took photographs and videos on their cell phones and made the crime scene a den of repeated rapes—expected it. Each of the accused was arrested while sleeping in hiding within 48 hours of the crime. The cases provided several turning points. The first was the awareness of the victim. Both police and the public prosecutor say the fact that the photojournalist went to Jaslok Hospital without stopping to wash off crucial forensic evidence, al- lowed the crime to be registered quickly as per procedure, forging a tight case.
Second, the photojournalist’s statement was coherent, and verified not once, but thrice: First a sketchy version made for the initial FIR, the second registered in detail in front of a magistrate and the third made during her deposition. They were lucid, unemotional and each matched the previous version. This established the credibility of her statements beyond doubt.
The third, and a key change, is the rising awareness among women since the December 2012 gang rape in Delhi, that demanding justice is the only way to end sexual violence. The telephone operator came forward on September 3, 2013 after hearing of the photojournalist, partly to seek justice, and partly out of a sense of guilt that if she had reported it earlier, another may not have suffered. The accused relied on a sense of victimisation in their prey. Even when in custody, according to police medical examiners, they didn’t think the victims would go through with it.
The fourth was the determination of the police, who were shocked that such an incident could occur in the heart of
Mumbai. The rapists were allegedly administered third degree treatment by constables who were overcome at the trauma of the two victims. They also had to be given extra protection in prison where other prisoners attacked them. While denying any such incidents or claims, senior police officers confirmed that a strong message that “rape will not be tolerated” had been sent.
Fifth, the investigation was swift and thorough: ACP Arvind Sawant, the principal investigator, pieced together information from 40 men from three crime branch units and over 100 police personnel. Within an hour of the FIR being filed, 21 informants were rounded up, and within three hours, the names and addresses of the accused were determined. Within five days, a team of experts from the Gujarat Forensic Science Laboratory and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory, Delhi, examined the crime scene.
Within six days, on August 28, the police had taken the accused back to the spot to reconstruct the crime, to rule out variations in statements and remove allegations of false statements made under duress. Both victims iden- tified the accused, including the juveniles, in a TIP (Test Identification Parade). By the time the 600-page chargesheet had been filed on September 19, DNA reports were positive, and the case against the accused was watertight.
The Shakti Mills case also highlights the class divide in response to the victims. While the photojournalist was supported by family, friends and colleagues, the phone operator lacked social support and her wedding plans with her male witness fell through.
Flavia Agnes, who heads women’s rights group Majlis that has been acting on behalf of both victims, notes: “One is English-speaking, the other is not. One is of a higher social class, the other is not. While the media took care by not revealing the photojournalist’s identity, they have not been so careful with the telephone operator.” Her identity leaked, her home besieged by the media, shunned and shamed in her locality, the victim could not return to her job, has no family and has developed complications from the lack of medical treatment. Unlike the photojournalist, who was treated at state expense at Jaslok Hospital, the telephone operator was treated at the government JJ Hospital, where she was subjected to the banned two-finger test, which was slammed by Judge Phansalkar-Joshi in her judgment.
As the first case to reach sentencing under the new Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013, several areas of potential remedy within the law have emerged. Special Public Prosecutor Nikam says the case, in setting a precedent, highlights the needlessness of the victim to record her statement thrice— in front of the police, a magistrate, in court, and in the case of a juvenile accused, in front of the juvenile board. Ideally, he suggests, it could be replaced by a single in-camera deposition. ATS chief Roy says the age of the juvenile is of concern: “They are being tried as children for what is essentially an adult crime,” he says.
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