Death penalty for rape

Rape is a crime everywhere in the world, no country or culture is exempt. Punishments for rape are invariably lengthy prison sentences and in some cases, death. Rape is an under-reported crime everywhere and consequently rapists everywhere go unpunished. It is a crime that happens so frequently that it rarely merits headlines — anywhere. But there are some rapes that have the capacity to shape the zeitgeist and the rape and appalling torture of a 23-year-old medical student in New Delhi in 2012 is one such in the modern era. The victim died a fortnight later. Four men were found guilty of the crime, a fifth accused, the bus driver, hanged himself in his prison cell. The men were sentenced to death and the Indian Supreme Court has now upheld the sentence on appeal.

This newspaper has consistently opposed the death penalty; but equally has supported the rule of law. There is nothing to suggest that the sentence within the canon of Indian law is anything other than legally sustainable. The father of the victim has called for the sentence to be carried out swiftly but there are going to be legal hoops to go through before the hangman does his job, and it could be some time before there is a final resolution.

The head of the New Delhi Commission for women said that at least six rapes a day were happening in the city alone every day, and that rapists were not afraid of the consequences of their actions as the Indian legal system is so sclerotic. The current case has taken five years to get this far and that despite being fast-tracked. Countless other women, alive and still seeking justice, wait in the wings of a system that is loaded against them. And what of Pakistan? There has been no rape case here that has aroused the world in the same way as in India but the same conditions pertain — women struggle to get justice, and not just for rape but for every other type of crime.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2017.

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