Sexual Harassment through the smartphone

 Police arrested some youth in Ballia because they had filmed a gang rape of minor girl & it had become viral.  This shows how insensitive we have become that we can film such acts instead of helping the victim .The fact ,that this act went viral shows something else ...a majority of us are indulging in sadism.We seem to take pleasure in watching others in pain. 

 

Smartphones are being increasingly used to film all such crimes & then they go viral as smartphones can easily transmit these video clips to various social media platforms like facebook, twitter, whatsapp .Moreover, the porn sites will pay for such video clips. 

 

Prajwala’s founder & anti trafficking crusader , Sunitha Krishnan ,is of the opinion that smartphones are used to film such acts because the perpetrators want to exhibit their acts or rather their crimes . In India, the woman has to bear the brunt of rapes & molestation, eve teasing etc. while  the perpetrators roam around looking for new victims. In our nation, the public believes that the girl or woman is herself responsible for having been raped or molested or eve teased. The man ( or men )   who did it did so because he ( they or )  was ( or were )  aided & abetted & encouraged by acts of commission & omission by the victims. In other words, the character assassination of the victim is is relentless while the perpetrators are projected as ideal persons. 

 

Sunitha Krishnan had filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2014 as she had been tipped in this regard about smartphones being used to forward such videos thereby making them viral. The Supreme Court directed that CBI to  investigate these crimes. Sunitha Krishnan launched the #ShametheRapist Campaign.The trauma of the victims or survivors increases exponentially  as each such share through social media shames them, more & more. And they are silenced  . Moreover, justice takes a long time in India to reach fruition even after fast track courts have been established as Nirbhaya verdict came after seven long years of waiting. And that too ,because there was tremendous public pressure .

 

The shame is also one of the many reasons why many times , the victim is coerced & raped repeatedly .And many men join, turn by turn in raping the victims because once she has been raped, she can be raped again because she has been numbed by the video going viral. Because as Bishakha Datta ,executive director of Point of View ( non profit organisation that works for women & other genders )  opines  that the body of survivor is public property & so can be abused by many more in repeated ways. It is as if a lifetime of silence is imposed on the victims as opined by Sunitha Krishnan.And sometimes, the victims have to pay up.

 

And this transmission is so easy that sometimes a person may be bullied, coerced &  shamed by sharing photos & videos though these photos and videos are not in the public domain. Hence, the platforms wherein such videos were posted also need to be taken to task .

There were many such videos on sale in Uttar Pradesh in 2016 .And going by the spate of rapes being reported in many States , it does appear that more & more rapes are being filmed & circulated all over India.

 

The Supreme Court has formed a panel to stop such videos in the wake of Sunitha Krishnan’s petition in this regard. And the panel will have representatives of Google India, Yahoo India, Microsoft India s also Facebook as these platforms need to be held accountable for the content which gets posted on them.

Moreover ,cyber crime is not easily solvable in India because of obvious reasons.Firstly ,  the evidence may have been erased before the investigation begins. And police in India lack training regarding cyber crimes & even the equipment to trace the origins & the trail of the cyber crime is extremely difficult.

 

 In 2018 alone, 2000 cases of sexual harassment & 700 cases of online bullying have been reported. The good thing, is that this high number is because now ,people are aware of cyber crimes. Of course, there are umpteen cases which never get filed because the victims have been numbed by the said criminal acts going viral .Another plus point is that the Government in 2018, has launched a portal called the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal for recording complaints online. Police have been trained in digital crimes as also public has been made aware of cyber crimes. 

The public must delete such videos from their devices once they come across such content. The members of the public must be able to complain anonymously to the police about such videos getting viral as suggested by Sunitha Krishnan. 

 

Another aspect as pointed out by Bisakha Datta  is that the relevant sections of IT act needs to be invoked to nail the accused .Then only, will the perpetrators understand that cyber crimes pay back with exemplary punishment. And last but not the least , cyber crimes must be routed through fast track courts as technology upgrades faster than human actions, commissions  & omissions . 

Sexual Harassment v/s Judiciary.

This blog post was  published on Counter Currents on 25th April,2019

A woman staff member has accused the CJI( Chief Justice of India )  )  , Ranjan Gogoi, of sexual harassment through  a sworn affidavit handed over to 22 judges of the Supreme Court.

The said woman staffer  stated  “He hugged me around the waist, and touched me all over my body with his arms and by pressing his body against mine, and did not let go. He told me ‘hold me’, he did not let go of me despite the fact that I froze and tried to get out of his embrace by stiffening and moving my body away.”The said molestation happened in mid October, 2018.

And the harassment continued thereafter with the woman being dismissed from service, her brother in law & husband being suspended from Delhi Police for an old case which had been mutually resolved. This all had completed by December ,2018  .In January,2019 the woman was summoned & asked to apologize to the CJI's wife which she did ,even though she could hardly understand the reason for the same. In March,2019  a criminal case of cheating a person of Rs 50,000 was heaped on her at Tilak Marg Police Station .She & her husband  were detained for nearly 24 hours without food & water & faced abuse "-both  verbal & physical.The affidavit submitted includes video footage showing her husband in handcuffs. 

Faced with the never ending harassment, she decided, to go public, with her ordeal, by submitting the affidavit. 

The CJI  constituted a bench consisting of himself ( against whom the allegation of sexual harassment has been made ), Justice Arun Mishra &Justice  Sanjiv Khanna .This was as Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said four web portals had published the allegations by a dismissed woman from the court staff.And hence, it was a matter of great public importance.And then the bench headed by CJI   slayed the allegations the CJI said  that this allegation was the price he was paying for having an honest career ( a PF of little more than 40 lacs &savings of nearly 7 lacs ) .He went on to add  that this allegation was apart of a big conspiracy as he was slated to hear important cases in the next week namely...Meenakshi Lekhi's petition against Rahul Gandhi's distortion of the Supreme Court's last order regarding Rafale deal, a petition against the ban by the Election Commission on the biopic on PM Modi & another one asking for changing election date in Tamil Nadu because of large scale bribing of voters.The CJI went on, to say that, since he was too honest & could not be faulted on that account, this type on insinuation was being hurled at him. The CJI said that the allegations are so low that they are unworthy of a response.

And to add insult to injury , the Solicitor General, the Advocate General & the President of the Supreme Court Bar association agreed that the allegations were an attempt to undermine the independence of the judiciary.It appears as if this case is going to give tough competition to the M. J. Akabr versus Priya Ramani case which had 97 lawyers listed for M. J Akbar as per  the legal notice  

And Finance  Minister  , Jaitley has penned a blog  post defending the judiciary . So , women need to wait & watch this...what is that frightens men so much about any sexual harassment allegation/s that they go into a huddle across all lines ...the executive ( FM,Jaitley  )  hobnobbing with the judiciary ( the Supreme Court )  ? Moreover, many SC judges are saying that they would prefer male staff at their residential offices in light of the sexual allegations against the CJI. This is what patriarchy is all about..blame the victim.....not just one but as a class ! On second thoughts, if a male staff had alleged sexual harassment charges, it would  not be termed straight.....pun intended ! 

The way the harassment case was dealt by the Supreme Court is a sham. It is not a trial .There was no due process of law ,that was followed.The lady complainant  was absent  when this matter of great public importance was taken up. Only  to be hushed up.The CJI against whom the allegations have been made, became a judge in his own case. These two things go against the rules of natural justice .The rules of natural justice demand, that no one should be condemned unheard...in other words , there must be proper hearing .In this case, the woman was not heard at all. Another rule of natural justice says,  that no man ,shall be a judge in his own case. In this case, the lady has accused the CJI of sexual  harassment & the CJI himself heard the case  against himself. This is most unjust. This makes a mockery of justice.

Thankfully, before this travesty of justice continued, the advocates & lawyers of Supreme Court demanded, that an independent investigation of the sexual harassment charges were the only way out of this unfairness. Even a group of distinguished citizens like Arundhati Roy, Aruna Roy, Medha Patkar have said that the serious charges of sexual harassment need an independent probe .

And therefore, its now emerged that the senior most  Judge  ( next in line to the CJI , Ranjan Gogoi )  Justice Bobde will conduct an investigation into the sexual harassment allegations.  Justice Bobde has formed a 3 member committee consisting of himself, Justice N. V Ramanna & Justice Indira Banerjee. And notice has been issued to the woman who made the allegations.

And yet , will this investigation be fair & just ? Because, Justice Bobde has said that the investigation will be an in house procedure & so, no lawyer  needs to represent the parties.This seems unfair to the complainant woman as she is a commoner .She  will be pitted against others who are experts in  law & the experts, will try their best to protect their colleagues & especially so, when the CJI is involved. Justice Bobde has said that the no time period has been set in which the probe needs to end. And further action is dependent on the findings of the probe. And most important, the findings of the probe will remain confidential.This sounds unreasonable  as the public have a right to know the outcome. The CJI assassinated the woman complainant's character in her absence when he dismissed the allegations .The woman complainant has a right to know, what the Supreme Court committee headed by Justice Bobde unravels.

After all , as the late eminent jurist  Palkiwala used to say, "Justice should not only be done, but seen to be done. "

In the end, it all leads to the fact, that there is no procedure laid  out for dealing with a case, where any judge of the SC or the CJI is accused of sexual harassment. The gender sensitization committee as also the in house mechanism does not state what needs to be done in case , a complaint is filed against the CJI. In the  Veeraswamy case, the SC opined that as the CJI is involved with the fairness & integrity of the judiciary, the CJI must  not be part of evidence of either the defence or the prosecution.The President of India, in such a case, will consult the CJI.The SC had added ,  that after going through the materials placed before the CJI, the CJI will advise the President   either about sanctioning prosecution or filing FIR as the case may be ,against any constitutional judge after being satisfied in the matter. Accordingly President will act upon the CJI's advice. This is to prevent frivolous complaints & unnecessary harassment to the constitutional   judges including the CJI.

This case, will perhaps, force the Parliament to make rules of procedure to follow in case, such situations arise in the future, wherein, complaints of sexual harassment or any other crime are hurled against the CJI or other constitutional judges.Because as Article 14 of the Indian Constitution states, "the state shall not deny to any person Equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws in the Territory of India. "

This blog post was published on Women's Web as a Featured Post on 25th April,2019