SURAT GANGRAPE SIGNALS RISE OF SEX MANIA IN SOCIETY?
by Meenakshi Joshi
The Surat gang rape has again shocked the whole state after the last year’s Patan gang rape. As after Patan gang rape one after another rapes and gang rapes were coming out. Similarly after the Surat shameful gang rape one after another incident of gang rapes and rapes are coming out from different corner of the state. By the time the article is published many more cases of rapes and gang rape may surface, It is assumed that only 25 % case of rape cases are registered , and rest remain a silence, because of facing social ostracism. Last year only 10% cases of rapes were registered before the police in Gujarat.
Whenever one open the newspaper in the morning is shocked to come across the news of rape, sexual abuse, gang rape which range from father raping daughter, kids raped by elders.
The gang rape of Kashmiri two women by paramilitary forces last month has rocked the whole valley, and protests are going on. The Interim Committee report has indicted the Paramilitary force and the doctors, who tried to suppress the truth in their Post Mortem report. the Bollywood star raping the maid servant in Mumbai is another bombshell. The gang rape in the moving car in Bhopal, where the wife and husband from Mumbai were picked up in the name of a lift is another incidents. One women was raped inside on of the police station in Delhi.The rapes in car has become normal after the series of rapes inside the car in Delhi.
How Safe is Gujarat for women-
Gujarat is claimed to be the haven for the safety of women. The Patan Gang Rape had broken the myth of this claim.From January 2008 to December 2008 there are 374 cases of rape, 1110 kidnaping,122 sexual harassment,6094 cruelty by husbands. These are the registered cases on before police only. See the tally of the Crimes against Women in Gujarat :( In three years : March 2006 to March 2009)
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The Crimes against Women in Gujarat : In three years : March 2006 to March 2009
District: Rape - Sexual Harrasment/Eve Teasing
Ahmedabad (City ) 132 - 237
Ahmedabad ( Rural ) 036 - 068
Rajkot ( City ) 016 - 036
Rajkot ( Rural ) 068 - 104
Surat ( City ) 101 - 114
Surat ( Rural ) 016 - 027
Baroda ( City ) 022 - 040
Baroda ( Rural ) 033 - 050
Gandhinagar 034 - 046
Surendranagar 055 - 095
Kutchh 041 - 095
Amreli 028 - 053
Junagadhh 031 - 130
Kheda 039 - 094
Anand 029 - 076
Sabarkantha 034 - 068
Jamnagar 039 - 045
Banaskantha 065 - 143
Patan 031 - 059
Bhavnagar 012 - 088
Porbander 004 - 008
Narmada 017 - 019
Dahod 032 - 055
Valsad 016 - 026
Danga 015 - 015
Bharuch 030 - 036
Godhara 050 - 088
Tapi 014 - 005
Navsari 012 - 017
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Daily more than one women is raped , 19 women abducted, 16 women fall prey to domestic violence.
The women development cell of Gujarat University receives 200 complains of sexual harassment in colleges per year.
There is not a single day kids, school girls, college girls, women are not abused. The news papers are full with news in Gujarat. We know that many cases of sexual abuses goes unreported. Is it the rapes during the Carnage 2002 in Gujarat has infected the whole society in the state. It is presumed that after the Patan Gang rape and the public anger followed by the Surat gang rape and the public anger, there will be a halt to this on going sexual crime but it appears that the rapists are least bothered or scared of the Police , the administration or the people and the rapes are going on unabated. After Surat gang rape so many cases of rapes and sexual abuses has taken place with in last 10 days only. On the day of RathYatra, the some of the school remained half closed in Ahmedabad. Taking the advantage of the closure of the schools some girl students went to a park in the most populated area of the city, in the morning. The vagabond youths tried to sexually harass the girls in the park. As the girls raised their voice of alarm the vendors came to the rescue of the girls and caught hold of the boys. The police came but did not arrest the vagabond youths, and released them, which has surprised many in the city. This reflects the indifference attitude and the insensitivity of the whole police and it's attitude to wards women.
Surat Gang Rape
The Surat Gang rape took place in one of the most posh locality of Surat. A 17 years girl student of 12th standard of science stream was on her way to attend the tuition class which is scheduled at 5. A.M. She was exchanging the tutorial note book to one of her tutorial class mate, a boy, parking their two wheelers. The tutorial class starts from early morning to late night and the time is allotted accordingly to the students. After this incident of gang rape it has been changed to 7 A.M. through out the state.
Suddenly an Opel car stopped close to them, where three youths including the driver were boarded in. The two youths came out of the car and accused them of indecent public behavior and asked them to come to the police station. The driver of the car posed himself as the Police officer. Being scared the both - the girl and the boy were forced into the car. Then the girl was raped by one after another in presence of the boy. The sexual acts were video recorded in the mobile phone in order to black mail her in case she opens her mouth. Meanwhile the tier of the front wheel got punctured, but they drove the car into a construction site and continued the rape. The security guard of the construction site tried to intervene but was threatened with knife. The trio relieved the raped girl and the boy at 7 in the morning. The girl narrated the entire orgy of incident to her parents. The parents are from a reputed family and the girl is the niece of a prominent doctor. Instead of burying the rape in fear of social stigma they informed the police and in no time the police tracked the punctured car from a garage and reached the culprits. First Shahid Zaheer Saiyed was caught. He admitted the crime and his arrest led to others, Tariq Saiyed and Abu Bakar Shaikh. The trio were identified and taken to the remand for 14 days.
Shahid aged 23, is the son of Police Mr. N.G. Saiyed, now posted in Palanpur. Tariq, a student failed in 12thstandard is the son of head constable posted in Surat. Both of them pose themselves to be models. The third one aged 33 Abu Bakar is the owner of a mobile shop. The three has been committing crime one after another.
The incident of the gang rape reached the people with in no time and the whole city was raged into anger Though the police acted swiftly behavior of the Police commissioner, Shri Deepak Swaroop was very shocking. He wanted to underplay the gang rape, rather accused that the victim girl was in a compromising position with her tuition mate when the trio reached there. Presumably he was trying to underplay the shameful incident putting the blame on the girl. But thankfully the statement of Deepak Swaroop was contradicted by his junior officer, DCP Subhas Trivedi. He denied any such thing .
The comment of the Police Commissioner outraged the citizens of the city. He was not found in the office when the crowd reached there to submit the memorandum. Rather that very day evening he was busy in hosting party with the who is who of the city to celebrate the birth of a child of her daughter.
The Home Minister Shri Amit Shah rushed to Surat, met the victim, took charge of the situation, held the press conference, assured for the fast track court for immediate justice. Finally on the Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s direction the Police Commissioner was immediately transferred, and charge was handed over to Mr. Shivananda Jha the Addl. DGP of Surat range. He is the member of Special Investigation Team(SIT) appointed by Supreme court to probe post Godhra Riot , 2002. The Chairperson of National Women’s Commission too rushed to the city and demanded for Fast track court instead of High Court to ensure early justice as in the gang rape case in Rajasthan.
The news of gang rape spread like a wild fire in the city. The people were coming out to protest as it happened in Patan last year. In Patan , people came out spontaneously and the Bandh of the town was spontaneous. The mood was the same in Surat . The anger of the people went to the extent of lynching the rapist in the Civil Hospital, when they were brought for Serum Truth test. But both VHP and Bajrang Dal tried to wrest the opportunity and give a twist to the whole gang rape incident because the rapist happen to be Muslims. The Bandh call of the city on 15th June by both VHP and Bajrang Dal was alarming one . There was all apprehension of communalizing the whole incident of gang rape. Thanks to the people of Surat who were not carried by the ploy of communalization and rightly judged the rape as the heinous crime and demanded to hang the rapists. Sensing the mood of the people both BJP and Congress distanced themselves from the call of the Bandh. Few Muslim organizations naturally supported the Bandh Call and demanded the exemplary punishment to the culprits. BJP’s distancing from VHP’s & Bajarang Dal’s call was to distance itself from VHP and Bajrang Dal. Not only the BJP Govt. distanced itself from the Bandh Call but cracked down on it to prevent the Bandh Call, which has annoyed Pravin Togadia.In the age of internet the E Court has given death sentence for the rapist of Surat.
The fathers of the two rapists, belonging to the Police department. demand death sentence to their sons if found guilty. The families have been ostracized which hurt put them in shame in the society. The families of Shahid and Tariq has a tradition of serving in police department for years. The policemen’s surrounding in the family has encouraged the sons of the police men to take advantage of the situation. It has come to lime light some time Shahid was carrying the father’s revolver with him .On a routine check up he was caught with revolver by the police in that same Opel Car which belongs to his father, Mr. N.G Saiyed, the Circle inspector, posted in Palanpur. Shahid said that his father forgot the revolver in the car.
Now the trio has admitted that they also have raped a mentally challenged girl in Piplod area of the city 5 months back. They are suspected of murder of a Nepali sex worker Juhi , aged 35 , who was lost but her body recovered in January 16, 2009.
The MMS clippings taken by the trio are coming one after another. From MMS clippings the Police could discovered another victim of gang rape by these group, but she is reluctant to file the case. The reason is obvious.
One welcome the statement of the fathers of two rapists, who happens to be policemen, but it hard to believe that they were ignorant of their sons’ criminal activities.
These two rapist were posing themselves as police and taking the advantages. It was perhaps known to their fellow policemen, but they would prefer to overlook as an expression of fraternization within Police dept. Shahid carrying the revolver , is enough as a proof to the waywardness of these sons of policemen and ironically Deepak Swaroop’s statement too corroborate this fact.
The rapist sons of the police men were fully convinced that they can act freely because of their police background. More over the silence of the earlier victims encouraged them to black mail the victims and act wildly.
As a matter of fact there is no fear in the mind of the rapist due to the current system, which is very sluggish, distasteful ,and clumsy and time consuming with all kind of harassment of the victim. The slack attitude of the enquiry is one the cause of fearlessness of the rapists.
It is to remind that the Bijal Gang rape took place in 2004.The Chandani Rape case took place at Datar hill near Junagadh on May 13, 2007. The rapist killed the minor girl after the rape and her friend escaped after the rape in the Jungle. The rapists, though were identified escaped the arrest for two years and were arrested from Mumbai on last 30 th. May, this year. They were sent to Junagadh Prison where they were beaten by the prisoners and now transferred to Porbnder jail. The Chandani case rocked the whole state for two years.
Now after gang rape in Surat two gang rapes have come to lime light from Rajkot. One 17 year girl was missing for 5 months. She eloped with her friend. She was drugged and rapped by the person with whom she eloped with his two friends for five months, in Rajkot. A girl of 15 years was kidnapped , from Rajkot on 29th May, taken to Ahmedabad and raped by three persons for 17 days.
It appears that the sex mania has taken grip of the society and it is growing like a virus in the society. video recording with the aid of Mobile and the MMS has become a new instrument of black mailing tactic. More over one cannot deny the impact, media, internet, films, advertisements which is portraying the women as the object of sexual pleasure. Not only the teen-agers but also the aged people are also becoming the rapists. The rape and gang rapes are increasing like virus and sex mania in on rise, which is very alarming for a healthy society. This is ought to break the moral and ethic and culture of the society.
Rape and Business-
The Surat Gang Rape has opened another dimension of the lucrative business involved in the gang rape. It has come to limelight that the gang rapists earned 40,000 rupees per head out of selling the MMS clips. So raping and video recordings fetch money through black mailing.
The sexual crimes is becoming a bussiness and it is increasing in menancing scale in the state. The rising unemployment, moral degradation, exposure to obscenity through media, insensitive of the police, administration has opened the sexual crime as an avenue of earning too.
Due to the hostile attitude of the ruling party and the administration on Patan Gang Rape case the rapes are in creasing in Gujarat.. Thanks to the victim girl, girls students, parents of the victim and the protest through out the country, that finally the rapists lecturers got life imprisonment. The Jhagadia gang rape case verdict was followed by Patan case verdict was followed by life imprisonment to the culprits. But yet the Principal of the Patan PTC college, the Director of DIET—and other responsible persons for Patan case are yet to be punished.
While in Patan case , the Ruling party and the administration have created all kind of hindrances to un earth the truth of Gang Rape and tried to save the lecturers, just it was contrast in the case of Surat. The Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah rushed to the spot, transferred the irresponsible Police Commissioner, Chief Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern ,( where as he maintained a stud silence on Patan gang Rape). the rapists were conducted the truth serum test, with extra ordinary speed. It is fine. But is it the Muslim factor of the gang rape that prompted the ruling party to act so swiftly.? But every body would like that the Govt.and it’s machinery act as quick as possible and punish the culprit by opening more fast courts with the approval of the High Court with out delay, which the women organizations citizens have been demanding for a long time. Last year it was No More Patan This year it is No more Surat.
People of Gujarat are going for zero tolerance on the rapists.
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