News Analysis |
The Indian Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday expressed shock at the rape and sexual assault cases which are emerging from churches in Kerala. According to the report, the SC made these comments while hearing a minor’s rape case where the accused is a christian priest named Father Robin Vadakumcherry. The rape took place in Kerala’s Kotiyoor in 2016 and the victim subsequently gave birth to a child in 2017. The child was then handed over to a foundling home. A case was subsequently filed against the christian priest by the Kerala police and he is currently in custody.
In April, India’s Cabinet passed an executive order making the rape of girls under 12 years old punishable by the death penalty.
Thus the Supreme Court bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan remarked that such rape cases coming out of the Kerala church were shocking and disturbing.As reported by us recently, in another such matter from Kerala, a case of rape has been registered against three Christian priests who have been accused of abusing and blackmailing a married woman for a whopping 380 times.
Under the minor’s rape case, prosecutors have alleged that doctors too were involved in the matter as they were aware about Father Robin’s crime, and after the child was born – wanted to cover it up.The lawyer appearing on behalf of the two doctors and a hospital administrator sought that they not be tried under the POCSO act, as according to him it might create a wrong precedence and, other medical professionals may shy away from disseminating timely medical assistance.
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According to a report published in the Indian media, the accused doctors and hospital administrators namely Gynaecologist Sister Tessy Jose, paediatricianHyder Ali and Sister Ancy Mathew, were discharged by the Supreme Court bench. The medical professionals are reported to have helped the victim give birth.
The court though has refused to quash charges against the Child Welfare Committee’s chairman – Father Thomas Therakan and committee member – Sister Betty Jose, who were aware that the baby was kept in the foundling home and did nothing to surrender the child under the juvenile justice act.
Incidentally more shocking details are emerging about the case that the victim has claimed in the Thalassery Additional district sessions court that she and the father had consensual sex and that she wants to have a family life with him.
As per the report she has also claimed that she was an adult when she got into a relationship with the Christian priest. This though has been contradicted by her birth certificate and school records which show that she was indeed a minor.As a result of the dramatic U-turn by the victim, she has been declared a hostile witness by the court.
As reported by us recently, in another such matter from Kerala, a case of rape has been registered against three Christian priests who have been accused of abusing and blackmailing a married woman for a whopping 380 times.
Earlier on Wednesday, Police in eastern India have sealed a shelter for destitute women amid reports that 11 of the women are missing. Another shelter run by the same charity was closed in June after dozens of girls said they had been raped there.
The charity’s director and nine of his employees have been arrested on rape charges.The second shelter was sealed Tuesday, said police officer Anil Kumar Singh. Both shelters – one for women, the other for girls ages 7-17 – are in the town of Muzzafarpur, some 40 miles outside of Patna, the capital of Bihar state.
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Workers from the state Social Welfare Department reported the women missing Monday, Singh said.The state handed over investigation of the case Sunday to the federal government after a wave of protests and demands by the political opposition and human rights groups.
India has been shaken by a series of high-profile sexual assaults since 2012, when a young woman was fatally gang-raped on a moving New Delhi bus. That attack sparked protests calling for more protection for women, and harsher punishments for their attackers.
Since then, India’s Parliament has doubled prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalized voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women. In April, India’s Cabinet passed an executive order making the rape of girls under 12 years old punishable by the death penalty.
India became the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence and being forced into slave labour, according to a poll of global experts released earlier this year. Government data shows, reported cases of crime against women rose by 83 percent between 2007 and 2016, when there were four cases of rape reported every hour.