Today the verdict has come in the 16/12 gang rape case and the four adult accused have been given death sentence, rightly so.But the fifth accused was exempted from the gallows because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.Prompt global outcry and weeks of incessant protests on the streets of India led to the arrest and conviction of these men . This brutal rape and torture on a moving bus highlighted not only the routine abuse of hapless women in various parts of India as they travel for work but also the extreme insensitiveness displayed by her tormentors even while trying to derive pleasure at her cost. The idea to insert an iron rod into her body to rip her apart is so very repulsive that it makes me feel giddy and nauseating even as I write it. How could they get pleasure and high even as the victim was so agitated, bleeding and gory.Infact what kind of pleasure it is to make love(if it is so)on a moving vehicle when so many other hands and mouths are also hovering over a pinned hapless person. It is this thought which overwhelms me whenever I am thinking about that fifth juvenile convict.The police spokesman had said that the minor was the most brutal attacker and had "sexually abused his victim twice and ripped out her intestines with his bare hands." yet the juvenile was convicted of rape and murder and given the maximum sentence of three years'imprisonment in a reform facility. Is it right or enough for a person who is not a serial sex criminal nor even a psycopath yet could be so very inhuman??? This query is tormenting my thoughts today even as news channels are gloating over today's verdict. Cesare Beccaria had advocated for abolishing torture and death penalty in 1764 in Renaissant Italy. Of course these were enlightened thoughts after the Dark Ages in Europe, and many intellectual debates are currently being held in the newsrooms and drawing rooms, as to the fate of this fifth nameless convict. To my mind, this fellow should also be hanged with his gang members or even better he should be burnt alive along with others as was the last dying wish of "Nirbhaya". I overheard from the news channels a few days ago that even as he was engaged in his daily chores, his eyes were glued to the television and after hearing of the conviction of others , he preferred to lie low and aloof. To my mind, even though he is young and has a right to live, he has lost that mandate/right by the magnitude of his crime.In all these months, as has been reported, he looked remorseless and unrepentant. To me by giving him another chance we might be giving him another life to commit more such crimes.If the chances for this is even 20%, I would recommend death for him.This demand by me is of a sensitive and concerned woman citizen who can imagine the pain of the victim. I also demand gallows for all those men convicted in rape cases and all the more for saints and seers like Asaram Bapu if they are convicted. To me, this is 21st century and we need to change our mindsets and punishments in this hightech age accordingly. Earlier it may have been fashionable to desist from awarding death penalty, but now, as the magnitude and propensity of such crimes have increased manifold,it looks more reasonable to send these criminals to gallows so as to send a message loud and clear to the society and community at large.
