Following Nirbhaya heart rending incident and massive outcry, the then Government brought in stringent provisions, added by an amendment made by the Parliament in 2013, under Section 376 of the IPC. In that, provision of an imprisonment from 7 to 10 years and for rest of the life or sentencing the accused rapist to death depending upon the severity of the crime, were incorporated. It is astonishing that even such a stringent law has not deterred criminals and people including minors with sick minds from committing crimes against women. Why it is so and how it can altogether be stopped are difficult questions with lot of connotations. However, the maxim that anyone breaking the law of the land must be punished and punished quickly after committing the crime needs to be upheld at all costs. In this connection, close on the heels of the alleged gang rape and subsequent death of a woman in Hathras in UP, the Central Government has issued yet another fresh advisory to all the states and the UTs in respect of mandatory action to be taken in cases of crimes against women.
The need is to probe cases of rape after filing of FIRs in a time bound exercise and as per Section 173 of Cr.PC and stressed upon now vide fresh directives, the same is required to be completed within a period of just two months. Usually, delays in completing probes which at times are of inordinate nature in such cases, in many instances affects the course of prosecution which may even lead to lesser punishments or even acquittals. The fact that the dying declaration of the victim cannot be discarded merely because it was not recorded by a Magistrate needs to be taken note of especially in the light of the order of the Supreme Court on January 7, 2020. It is and must be presumed that the victim cannot give a false, untrue or exaggerated statement knowing fully her physical condition at the time of giving such declaration.
In many instances it has been witnessed that the police at the outset, either refused to file an FIR or caused delays in it or simply watered it down with intent to help the accused and influence negatively the ways of delivering of justice which now under the fresh directives has been made mandatory. The plea that an approached police station had no jurisdiction over the place where crime had taken place has been taken care of by the law where in such cases, an FIR or a ”Zero FIR” was to be registered on receipt of an information on commissioning of a cognisable offence. Every effort, therefore, must be taken at every step by which delivery of criminal justice in the country was made easy and smooth with particular emphasis in context of the safety of women. The advisory from the Centre reiterates about Section 164-A of CrPC that in a case of rape or sexual assault investigation, the victim should be examined by a registered medical practitioner under consent within 24 hours from the time of receiving the information relating to the commission of such an offence.
The advisory is just a summary of various provisions of the law and procedures of investigations, forensic evidence, general and circumstantial evidences, standard operating procedures for investigations and prosecution of the accused, using national data base on sexual offenders for their identifying and tracking and other information which the police and investigating agencies have to follow with intent to ensure speedy, sure and stringent conviction of the offenders. With this advisory, it is hoped that not only shall the culprits be brought to justice very quickly after committing the crime but preventive measures too to be taken, encouraged and mass awareness made so that crimes against women do not take place at all.
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