There were two talking points about the judgment of the high court. Firstly, the culprit was given a fake Muslim. Secondly, the life sentence of the rapist of a four-year-old girl was reduced to 20 years on the ground that he spared the life of the survivor
Syed Ali Mujtaba l Clarion India
A recent judgment by the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court that reduced the life sentence of a rape convict to 20 years has caught the attention of many in the country. Some dumb-witted people have called it yet another example of the ‘Hindu-isation’ of the Indian Judiciary
There were two talking points about the judgment of the Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The first was the controversy over the name of the convict who was earlier told to be a Muslim, but later turned out to be a Hindu after his Muslim identity was fake news. The second talking point was how come a demonic act of rape, that too, of a four-year-old girl, could be construed as “kind enough” to spare the life of the four-year-old. This gives rise to the speculation that religious biases in favour of Hindu convicts are being practiced in India. The release of the convicts of the Bilkis Bano gang rape is a recent example.
Noted lawyer and senior advocate, Rajeev Dhavan, in an interview, had alleged that some of the Supreme Court’s judgments have paved the way for the ‘Hindu-isation’ of India. Dahvan cited the apex court’s judgments going back to the sixties and said that some of its rulings have given a nod to the idea that India was an “innately Hindu” state. The noted lawyer enlisted four important judgments saying they contributed to the ‘Hindu-isation’ of India. The last case judgment he cited was of the Babri Masjid case.
Ramsingh was arrested on the charge of raping a four-year-old girl in Indore in 2007. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Additional Sessions Judge in April 2009. In May 2009, he made a criminal appeal challenging the judgment in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The high court reduced the convict’s sentence from life imprisonment to 20-year rigorous imprisonment.
The incident reportedly took place near ITI ground in Indore on May 31, 2007. Ram Singh, then 25, resided in a tent nearby. He called the minor girl inside the tent under the pretext of giving her a rupee and raped her.
—
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com