On 3-05-07,in broad day light,a 20 year-old woman was brutally raped by two strangers at a remote corner of the Kozhikkode(Kerala,India) beach. In the end of the savage act, one of the culprits drove blunt iron rod to the genital of the victim and left her in a badly bleeding condition with severe injuries. The victim had left her home at Kannur, 90 kilometers north to Kozhikkode, that morning. She was in the company of another woman whom she knew,until a few moments before the crime occurred. After emerging from the scene in a severely battered condition, the woman with the help of a few local vendors reported to the police and was admitted to the Calicut Medical College where the wound was sutured and treatment was given under the supervision of the police. According to the content of FIR, Cr No.146/07,Dt 04-05-07 of Kasaba Police Station, Kozhikkode the assailants are two men aged between 25 and 30, and the victim is reprtedly in a position to identify them. Acts punishable under Sections 376(g) and 324, IPC are mentioned as committed.
Normally, the police give out stories of crimes such as rape to the newspapers as routine for publishing. But in the abovementioned case,either such thing didn't happen or the media didn't take such interest in the first instance. When workers of a women's group Nisa visited the victim at the Medical College Hospital,some of the police personnel were seemingly more vehement to speak on the suspected antecedents/ moral virtuousness of the poor woman than to tell anything about their willingness to track down and bring the culprits to book.A few reporters of certain leading Malayalam papers also had queried on the allegedly misdirected enthusiasm of the members of the womens group to help a rape victim and to punish the rapists, in such a case, where the victim anyhow was already having an unconvincing moralistic trail. This being the situation,the possibility of persons acting in collusion to subvert the due process of law, motivated by vested interests in keeping the moral regime intact even at the cost of inflicting severe injuries to womens' minds and bodies is much obvious. Therefore, the State and the National Commissions for Women as well as the National Human Rights Commission may please be alerted to the growing incidences of brutalizations of women, where the offenders are allowed to take advantage of the prevailing culture of moral policing. These institutions, together with those in the higher rungs in the the police and the media would do better to instruct their subordinates to act in manners that respect the autonomy women should have over their bodies: albeit, at least to the exent that the to the law of the land permits. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
