106 rape cases are stated to have been reported to the Goa police in 2024. This is out of 365 cases of crimes against women registered in 2024 as against 288 cases registered in the previous year. To add to this, there was reportedly a recovery of 12 lakhs worth of GHB (Gamma-hydroxybutyrate), stated to be a date rape drug.
Response by the police at the first point of contact is critical. Prompt action must be taken against police if they fail to make so much as a station diary entry when they get a call from any good Samaritan or the pink force or the robot police or the person herself that she has been raped, and is being brought to the police station. That call must find a record somewhere. To start with, the station diary report must reflect the information received orally. The faster detailed protocols on these matters are put in place by the Goa police and followed, the better.
Worse still, some of the victims of sexual offences are under some incapacity because of being minor or disabled. In cases where the victims are kidnapped or abducted, there is an additional responsibility on the police. There can be missing reports filed because they are missing. However, a missing report and a complaint of rape are two different reports for the police, and each needs to be acted upon, even if they pertain to the same person. When there is information about rape, the police cannot be found being content putting a tick to the disposal of the missing report alone or conveying to the police station where the missing case is reported that the person is found. This amounts to gross dereliction of duty by the concerned police. It means that if the matter is not pursued by the relatives or concerned citizens, there will be no record or registration or investigation into the case.
It is great that technology is being effectively used to detect cases of crimes against women, as was recently done through digital mapping, based on the statement of the complainant, which was not happening earlier. One has seen cases, where use of digital technology could have helped detect the crime and bring the culprits quickly to book. But technology was not at all used, by the very police station which is supposed to be best equipped with the technology, that is, the Cyber Crime Cell.
Having said this, any efficient digital mapping by the police in the particular case, cannot excuse the failure of another police station which received the information about the case to register a case of rape, after recording the said information at her residence or at a convenient place of such person’s choice. It cannot also excuse the callous conduct of this other police station and the police station to which the young woman was handed over, to hand over the woman mid-way between their police stations, like she were a parcel to be passed on half way.
Medical evidence can be hard to come by if there is a delay in examining the victim and in processing and obtaining forensic evidence. The demand from groups to have a forensic laboratory in Goa, to eliminate time lags, is statedly now met with the setting up of such a laboratory in Goa. But sadly, the laboratory seems not to be equipped enough to qualify to be recognized as examiner of electronic evidence under section 79A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Is it that everything must require shouting from the rooftops for the required infrastructure or protocols to be introduced.
In any investigation, as also later, in appreciation of evidence about the case, it is necessary to factor the intersectionality of gender with other factors such as ethnicity, ability, caste, ethnicity, religion, and economic status, which can increase the challenges faced by women and girls. Contextual understanding of a crime is important, to assess what steps will be required to collect evidence. Similarly, context is important to consider in appreciation of evidence by the Court.
India’s new criminal laws kicked in from 1st July, 2024, statedly to dispense with what were considered as colonial laws. In the process, there was a claim that crimes against women would also be better addressed through these laws. But while sensitive legislation is necessary, the provisions for time bound procedures can only be set up for failure if we do not have the systems to enable time bound compliance to happen. The State cannot absolve itself of its responsibility to reach justice to the last woman, and towards that, it must have enabling systems. There is no timely recruitment of judges, because of which, with the rising cases, and the vacancies not filled, the responsibility is cast upon an already burdened judiciary. Who is responsible for this delayed recruitment of judiciary? We need to bell the cat, if that is what it amounts to.
There must be all the required personnel for prevention, for enforcing prohibition and for enabling rehabilitation. This involves making adequate provisions in the budget, and timely appointments of judicial officers. This involves paying as much importance to prevention, where gender sensitization, sex and sexuality education, must be intrinsic to school learning. In the absence of this, the best of laws and policies are doomed to failure.
Besides this, there are the social and ideological factors that normalise sexual violence. If people convicted for gender based crimes are garlanded or rewarded with a job on being prematurely released, simply because they are card-holding members of the ruling party, or there is inaction when a political heavyweight is involved, it becomes a slippery slope and not long before other cases follow the leader.
Also, what happens when there is a substantial breakdown of law and order, where even in broad daylight, people are entering houses, and threatening and intimidating people into exiting, and even washing away any possibilities of evidencing something? In this scenario, who cares about the well-being of the marginalized and of those who are challenged?
(Albertina Almeida is
a lawyer and human rights
activist)