Did Priyanka Reddy get Justice??

Another rape incident, another blot on our country. On November 2019, Priyanka Reddy a veterinary doctor from Hyderabad was raped and murdered by four young men. Later those four accused also reached their fate in the hands of police. The accused were killed in an allegedly encountered by the Hyderabad police.

The narration given by the police that two of the accused tried to attack them and in retaliation they got killed. General public celebrated the killings of the culprits on the illusion that quick justice has been done. Crowds celebrated on the roads and some even burnt firecrackers.

But can we say that the alleged encounter was a justice to Priyanka Reddy? Did she ever got Justice??

What is Justice?

Public justice system has always been very hot headed and filled with emotions. Most of the public thinks that gunning them, stoning them, castrating them and other types of physical pain is the only punishment for rape crime. Their talks are always on those sorts of lines. The mob mentality only talks about physical pain. Can we term this as Justice?

Justice can only be achieved when the culprits gets proper punishment. Is death a proper punishment? Is killing them with tortures way a proper punishment? In Priyanka Reddy’s case, only after six days the culprits were killed in an alleged encounter. Can we term this as a Justice? Did the culprits suffer enough pain for the cruelty of the crime? Did they suffer long enough for their monstrous act? Was the alleged encounter a proper punishment for them?

The culprits gave lifetime grief and sadness to Priyanka Reddy’s family. And in contrast they only felt few seconds of pain from the bullet hit and that’s it, they succumbed to death. That’s not an appropriate punishment for the heinous crime they did. A person can only feel pain when they are alive. Them being dead so early is not a justice to Priyanka Reddy.

What’s proper Punishment?

The span of the punishment should be longer for such heinous crimes. We need to understand that the time factor is very important here.

• Proper punishment would have been if the culprits were given capital punishment (death sentence) only after spending few years in jail with rigorous imprisonment.
• Proper punishment would have been when they spent years in an extremely small prison cell, surrounded by only walls, only to be felt suffocated by their own karma.
• Proper punishment would have been when the culprits would go through the mental trauma of waiting for their hanging day.

Mental agony is much worse than a few minutes of physical pain. Our law has a proper justice system, but it has serious implementation issues. Also the problem with the general public is that they lack patience. Somehow a thought process has crept into society’s psyche that only instant action is proper justice.

Instant Justice

Sometimes in pursuit of instant justice we fail to give actual justice to the victim, which ends up imprisoning an innocent individual.

In an extremely unfortunate incident a seven year old boy was murdered in Ryan International School in Gurugram in September 2017. Bus driver Ashok Kumar was charged with the murder. But later CBI investigation found that he was framed by the police. Ashok Kumar was given a clean chit by the court. Later the actual culprit was arrested who was a senior student of that school.

What if in the name of quick justice Ashok Kumar had been encountered to death. The hot headed public would have been happy, but the actual culprit would never have been caught.

Similarly in the Hyderabad case, it could be possible that one guy was not a culprit? It could be that he somehow got caught up with the other three accused? It could be also possible that there were more people involved in this case? The thruth could have only been known if proper investigation was followed up. But allegedly killing them has suppressed any other possibilities. We need to understand that justice delayed is not exactly justice denied.

Society’s Role

We put society’s every issue onus on the government. We think that Govt is responsible for all the rape crimes. Can the government stop crimes which are very individual and private in nature? 90% of rape cases are done by the persons who are already kwown to the victim. So in such cases protesting against the Govt is like looking away from the core issues.

That’s why we shouldn’t see justice through the eyes of the public. Public emotions are filled with impatience. Public outrage is also very short lived. After that we are back to our selfish normal life. It’s the family who go through the actual trauma, pain and grief.

They are the ones who deserve thruth, justice and closure, not the placard generation people who only knows to protest but doesn’t want to be part of the solution. The same generation loves to give wisdom sitting on their comfortable sofa, but are not willing to work on their own wisdom. The same generation want all sorts of punishment for the accused but are not willing to work on the core issues. And the core solution is not capital punishment.

So, has demand for death sentence solved the problem of rape? Data shows that capital punishment hasn’t stopped rape incidents. In the past many culprits has been given death sentence for rape and murder, but this has not stopped rape incidents. So what’s the solution? The answer lies in the society itself.

Why men rape?

Our focus around rape is only about two things. One is strict punishment for the rapist and the second is the safety for women. But, no one is focused on the core issue on why some people rape? What’s there mindset? Nobody is ready to talk about solutions to prevent rape. If this issue is addressed then rape would never happen.

Why some men rape, is a vast and complex issue which needs deep research. Still some researchers has laid down some primary reasons.

• Social rejection
• False sense of masculinity feeling
• Brutality experienced during childhood
• Unloving or emotionally hostile home environment
• Lack of attention during the teenage and adulthood years
• Taboo around sex education
• Unlimited access to pornography
• Emotional insecurity and immaturity

Solutions and Reality

All these issues are society issues, which each one should understand and take individual responsibility. This can be solved if we have a cohesive social and family structure, where

• Each individual understands its basic responsibility towards the society.
• Encouraging dialogue where people don’t feel ashamed in talking about their mental thoughts.
• Each individual is ready to listen to the other.
• Everybody is paying attention, so that we can indentify and reach out to help the vulnerable disturbed individual.
• Lessening societies class difference.

All this may sound too idealistic and boring, but it’s the only way to lessen the crime rate in our society. This is only going to benefit us. But among ourselves we have created a huge class difference which is growing day by day. An imbalanced society creates more criminals. When we ignore an individual and push them to a corner, it’s only going to have a negative response. And those negative reactions sometimes turns into a heinous act. The core solution to this lies in the society itself. But the problem is we want quick resolution for everything but are not willing to look inward for corrective measures.

But in reality people have become extremely ignorant of their basic social responsibilities. We have become so ignorant that we don’t have proper time even for our families. And when there is an untoward incident, we act surprised. Then we raise slogans, display placards, trend hashtags on social media. The outrage stays only for few days and we blame the system. But we forget that we are the system. And if this system doesn’t understands its basic social responsibilities, then unfortunately such crimes could occur even more frequently.

Crime and Judiciary

As per the data of 2020 by the National Crime Records Bureau the crime rate in India is 383 crimes per one lakh population. India’s population is almost 140 crores, that means 53 lakhs crimes alone in 2020 was committed. The sorry state of the Indian judiciary is that for every 10 lakhs population we have only 21 judges. No wonder why over 2.4 lakhs rape cases are pending in India. And on top of that India is the least policed nation where for every one lakh population we have around 140 policemen. The United Nations (UN) recommends 222 police personnel for every one lakh population.

Even if we are able to strengthen the numbers of judges and security forces, it would still be inadequate for India’s huge population. More judges and police personnel are only required when there is more crime in the society.

Having a big number of judges and police personnel is also not a matter to be proud of. In fact it shows the sorry state of a failing society and the increasing crime rate.

Conclusion

Statistically rape is the fourth most common crime against women. But in reality it could be the number one crime against women, because 90% of the cases in India are not reported. Crimes and rapes are not going to stop if we don’t address the core issue, which lies in the society itself.

Mob justice system achieves nothing. For instance, did the alleged encounter of the Hyderabad accused set up any kind of example? Have the rape cases stopped? It’s been almost three years since the Priyanka Reddy case. Since then more than sixty thousands rape cases has been reported and the unreported ones are even way more. Rape is one such crime which leaves the deepest of wounds.

Does giving tough punishment erases those wounds? Rape is very deeply scarring and it stays with the victim psyche forever. In case of rape and murder the justice word sounds very well to the general public. But for the family it’s a loss forever. No amount of punishment can ever give full satisfaction to the victims families. No amount of condolences can ever heal their wounds. They are only left with lifetime emptiness, whereas for the public it’s just an another issue which is forgotten very quickly.