The Great Indian Democracy That Fails Half Its Population

"India’s criminal justice system remains inaccessible and insensitive to most survivors of sexual violence. These survivors face barriers in getting their cases registered with the police, have inadequate legal support, and are forced to wait years to have their cases heard."
"According to India’s National Crime Records Bureau, around 100 sexual assaults are reported to police every day. Shocking though that is, the actual number of attacks is far higher, with a government survey finding that 99.1% of sexual violence cases go unreported, often due to pressure from family members."
"Immediate, systemic change is needed to ensure expeditious trials and day-to-day hearing of cases, such as took place in the Kathua trial. Justice needs to be done and be seen to be done so that all survivors of sexual violence can place their faith in the legal system, safe in the knowledge that they will be heard and their claims treated seriously."
"The onus is now on the Indian government to move beyond token action and ensure that the criminal justice system is responsive to survivors needs and is equipped to handle the high volume of sexual violence cases that are currently pending."
"Better implementation of existing laws, the introduction of much needed procedural reforms, and clearing the large backlog of cases pending in criminal courts, are all key. So is handling sexual violence cases with greater sensitivity, a more accountable police force, and bigger budgetary allocation by the government to end gender-based violence."
"This includes giving sufficient funding to women’s rights organizations that are delivering vital support services at the grassroots to women and girls."
Divya Srinivasan, South Asia Consultant, Equality Now

NEW DELHI, Jun 28 2019 (IPS) - Early in 2018, India was shaken by the horrific details surrounding the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kathua, a district in the north Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.

One of the most populous nations on Earth, with its diverse population, languages, religious devotion, highly intelligent people achieving recognition in the arts, sciences and technology, along with those in the nation mired in extreme poverty, shut out of advantages and suffering under a still-resonant caste system though it is now illegal, India has its problems. The fundamentalist orthodox among the majority Hindu population and the extremists among the huge albeit minority Muslim population along with simmering Sikh separatist agitation keeps the government on its toes.

Beset with so many difficult headaches there is one yet more, and it victimizes fully half of the Indian population; its girls and women, susceptible to sexual violence, rape, murder and a combination of atrocities that beggar description. In India, more than in most other countries, the lives of girls and women are fraught with the danger of extreme violence, in a culture that refuses to surrender its view of women as expendable objects to be viciously exploited and discarded.

Indian women no longer keep their heads down hoping to avoid notice leading to harassment and attacks. They now publicly campaign for protection from predators. Although the Indian government has made some changes to its laws favouring a more stringent application of justice for women and punishment for their tormentors the prevailing attitude by police and security officials goes into fallback mode of shrugging and ignoring the situation. This is just what happened time and again in the state of West Bengal in the case of a resident who terrorized his neighbours.

The son of a village council leader with the Trinamool Congress party, Mafizul Haz, accused of violent crimes among which rape and bullying stand out, terrorized his community with complete impunity. He remained protected in the coddling aura of his father's political influence as the younger son of Ainul Haq, a council leader -- where in rural India the council system frequently replaces the authority of police, courts and jailers all at the same time.

And although there were countless accusations launched and registered against the man in the Tufanganj police station, no remedial action was ever taken; he has never been held to account for, nor held to be responsible for his vicious behaviour and psychopathic actions harming others. Which led the villagers to inaugurate their own form of action to punish the criminal living among them. Although the man probably deserved to be lynched that would without doubt have brought the wrath of the village council to snap to attention on the villagers themselves not the perpetrator of their problems.

Fed up finally with the lack of attention to their pleas for intervention by authorities, the residents of Balabhut in the district of Cooch Behar gathered at night at the predator's property to quietly and swiftly dig a deep trench surrounding his house, effectively marooning him from the village and its victimized population. Placing him in a position where, when he became aware of the situation that he was under siege, caused him to unwillingly plead with those taking revenge, to provide him with food and water.

Home of Ainul Haq’s son Villagers dug a five-feet deep gully around the home of Ainul Haq’s son

We Get Too Soon Old and Too Late Smart

"It was a very scary thing that happened to me."

"I really don't want anybody to experience what I did, and maybe if the police caught the man who did this, nobody else will be hurt."

Unnamed victim

’Hamid Chekakri, 47, has been arrested in Atlanta on suspicion of doping seniors with drugged chocolates before stealing cash and valuables from their homes. Police handout

Elderly people are usually polite with strangers and for the most part respond to those who appear to be kind and 'charming', with trust. It seems the older one becomes, the more trusting. Because basically it's easier to believe -- or want to trust -- that people are basically good, and that it never hurts to give the time of day to people who appear to be comfortable in your presence. Certainly the benefit of the doubt is in favour of briefly befriending people who seem to merit it.

And for the people who were victimized by 47-year-old Algerian-born Hamid Chekakri, polite Canadians appear to have given him the time of day. They were willing to converse with him, to permit him into their homes on the pretext he conveyed that he was just a man looking for information, or, if they had a house for sale, perhaps he could be the buyer. And since he was so nice about it all, they were nice right back to him.

His modus operandi was to gain the trust of older people in their 60s and 70s, behave as though a transaction of some value to them might be in the offing, and as a sign of goodwill would offer them chocolates. One woman declined his offer, but he circumvented her decision of disinterest by popping a chocolate into her mouth. Imagine the effrontery of it! One might think the reaction to that would be offence, but this woman evidently swallowed the unwanted chocolate. It took 15 minutes for her to feel v e e e e r y drowsy.

The trouble was, anyone who enjoyed one of those chocolates would be ingesting a quite powerful sedative. Generally used medically in the treatment of seizures and anxiety. Mr. Chekakri used such a strong version of the drug that many of those he cajoled into enjoying one of his chocolates lost consciousness for a day, even several days. One couple in Montreal, 67 and 76, man and wife, were unconscious for 24 hours. 

When the 67-year-old wife woke she realized her head and lips were bruised, and then she saw her husband, unconscious on the floor. Taken to hospital they were tested positive for Clonazepam. On their return home they discovered that personal documents, cash, and jewellery were missing. In the space of a week, the "calm, patient and very charming" man robbed three households, feeding the householders  his special chocolates.

Video footage recorded by security cameras located close to the victims' home revealed that a rented vehicle left the area soon after the couple had fallen asleep, later found abandoned. But the rental registration surrendered the name of the culprit, and seeking assistance from the public to identify the image of the man captured on video, he was identified. And linked to six victims in various parts of Montreal and Ottawa.

Mr. Chekakri fled with the avails of his robberies, and was found and identified by the U.S. Marshals Service in Atlanta, Georgia where he had arrived on a flight from Costa Rica. Authorities confirmed active warrants out of Montreal for assault and burglary and arrested the man, and Montreal police escorted him back to Canada. To stand trial, while police urge any possible additional victims to come forward.

• Five counts of aggravated assault.
• Five counts of causing any person to take a stupefying or overpowering drug.
• Five counts of robbery.
• Three counts of breaking and entering.