"Justice delayed is justice denied, this is what I feel about our system after witnessing the ongoing delays in the case of my daughter who was abducted, brutally gangraped, tortured, and then left to die by her three abductors", a shattered and dejected Kunwar Singh Negi says, who has been running from pillar to post for more than eight years to get justice for his 19-year-old daughter.
The girl was abducted from Delhi's Najafgarh area on 9 February 2012, just 311 days before the infamous Nirbhaya gang rape case which reshaped the nation's anti-rape laws, and was taken to Rewari in Haryana by three men, who brutally gangraped her and then left her to die in a field.
The police charge sheet, confirmed in the forensic tests, claimed that the accused poured acid into the girl's eyes, inserted a broken liquor bottle into her private parts, and mutilated her face. Her disfigured body was recovered after the accused confessed to the crime and divulged the details of the location on 11 and 12 February 2012.
The three accused had been released from Tihar Jail over another case a few days before they allegedly raped the 19-year-old girl.
In February 2014, a Delhi court handed down the death penalty to the trio, but the case is still pending in the Supreme Court, because they challenged the lower court's verdict.
The last time Negi attended an apex court hearing was on 23 January 2020 and the family is yet to receive the date of the next one.
"Our fight for justice seems to be endless, as we do not have any support from the system, government, civil society, and even media", 54-year-old Negi told Sputnik, adding his wife still has not recovered from the incident.
Unabated Cases, Unending Wait
Earlier this year, the country noted the execution of four men in the infamous Nirbhaya case, six years after the incident occurred. However, as per data collected by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), which is under the jurisdiction of the federal Home Ministry, shows that 88 rape cases are registered every day and 32,033 were reported in 2019.
Speaking to Sputnik, the father of a 16-year-old girl who was raped in the city of Gurugram, Haryana in 2017, said that the situation is far more horrible as the figures are grossly underestimated.
"These are just the cases that have been reported. In many cases, the victims either remain reluctant to report crimes or they are coerced by their families not to report the incident due to [the] stigma attached with it", the victim's father said.
The government was forced to pass a tough anti-rape law in April 2013 following a massive outcry over the brutal rape of Nirbhaya but that has failed to bring about any positive change in society.
Young girls and women continue to fall prey to rapists. In several cases, the accused got away with minor punishments due to lack of evidence and many victims claim that their assailants are also protected by the police and politicians. Crime statistics showed that the police failed to file charge sheet in a third of all rapes that were investigated for each year after 2012.
NCRB data suggests that every third pending rape case in India is older than three years. Out of a total of 156,327 rape cases in the country, 12,216 were older than five years, and 1,840 pending cases were older than 10 years.
The government data has also revealed the dismal charge sheet rate in rape cases. The latter fell from 95.4% in 2013 to 86.6% in 2017. While the conviction rate in murder cases is over 43%, it is only 32.2% for incidences of rape.
Why Stringent Laws Fail to Curb Cases
The Criminal Law (Amendment), Act 2018 was enacted by the Modi government to prescribe even more stringent penal provisions, including the death penalty for raping girls under the age of 12. The law also mandates the completion of investigations and trials within 2 months each.
Speaking about the delay in justice, a judge in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh mentioned that they treat all cases equally.
"The proceeding of the cases completely depends on the evidence and not public outrage. No external force or pressure can result in delivery of a judgment or speedy trials in any case. People need to understand emotions can't play any part in the judiciary", she said on the condition of anonymity, as Indian law does not permit judges to speak to the media without approval from a higher authority.
In India, fast track courts were established in 2000, with an aim to clearing long-pending sessions and other lower judicial cases.
However, nothing much has changed over the years, the fast track courts took years to come into operation and crimes against women and children continue to rise with each passing year.
The government had made it mandatory to establish one such fast track court in each district, but until last year there were only 664 fast track courts in India.
The federal government has set a target of opening 1,023 fast track courts to clear pending rape cases, but the reality on the ground is something quite different because these courts are now functioning similar to their regular peers.
When asking about the still pending rape cases Yogita Bhayana, an activist and founder of People Against Rapes in India, said that there are no such fast track courts as the speed at which they are working is no different from normal courts.
"Machinery too has to work accordingly as every step takes time and works at a slow pace. No dedicated courts are there, pendency is too much. The speed is a little higher than the normal courts. It takes time for the police to provide a charge sheet investigation. Forensic reports take time, there are no support systems for a fast track in the country", she said.
Yogita also mentioned that after the infamous Nirbhaya case, the government promised that the number of forensic labs would be increased but nothing has happened.
"It takes 6-12 months to get forensic reports, so where is the fast track? Witnesses and arguments take so long, dates are postponed. The judiciary has to take a firm stand on it. They should give priority to the rape cases to get solved in time and the victim gets justice", she underscored.
