New Delhi:
The Supreme Court has taken up on its own proceedings in rape cases which have been reported from Delhi and surrounding areas in recent times, including the case of a minor who was gangraped on a sleeper bus, and observed that the incidents bore “painful similarities” with the 2012 Nirbhaya case.
In 2012, the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in Delhi and her subsequent death had sparked massive protests across the country.
Taking up recent rape cases suo motu, a Supreme Court bench led by Justice JB Pardiwala said these incidents clearly highlighted the failure of law enforcement agencies.
“The reports of rape cases in Delhi-NCR starkly underline a systematic failure on the part of the law enforcement and the public administrative authorities to guarantee basic public safety,” the bench said.
Public spaces including parks and buses cannot be allowed to become high-risk zones due to inadequate lighting, poor surveillance and a lack of other administrative amenities, Justice Pardiwala said.
Just days ago, a 17-year-old girl who had left home to visit south Delhi’s Kalkaji Mandir and seek blessings on her birthday was gangraped by men who posed as policemen in a nearby park.
Merely expressing solidarity is not enough and it is essential to fix accountability, Justice Pardiwala said, and observed that “one cannot help but draw painful parallels to the Nirbhaya incident of 2012.”
Following a nationwide protest, the Nirbhaya case had led to amendments in the country’s laws to expand the definition of sexual offences and increase punishment for crimes against women. Of the six accused, one was a juvenile. One of the accused died in jail, while the remaining four were hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail.
The Supreme Court’s reference was to a case reported in August when a teen who was on her way to Noida from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri was allegedly gang-raped on a moving bus. The ‘sleeper’ bus had curtains covering the berths, which the accused took advantage of. It also did not have a functional CCTV system, as required by law after the 2012 Nirbhaya case.
