Rape is one of the most talked about crimes in our society as well as law. It is a sensitive matter that can’t be sidelined as it not only impacts the physical health but leaves non-healing wounds on the mental health of a victim. In our judicial system, there are strict rules and provisions for a person found guilty of such a heinous act. It is an unsocial, illegal, and strictly punishable act where one can’t be acquitted or granted exemption from the conviction on the pretext of good behaviour during his jail term. In order to protect women from such an inhuman act, there are several provisions in our law while it doesn’t have any such provisions to protect men and their fundamental rights.
Now the question arises, why do men need provisions in law to protect themselves when they are already capable of it? The answer is our law or judicial system itself as it seems quite biased at this modern age.
These days, many smart women are using the protection of the law not only as a shield to protect themselves but also as a weapon to level their personal scores or satisfy their self-centred ego. Due to which, the trend of an increasing number of ‘false rape’ or sexual abuse cases is highly prevalent. And several studies have presented the data supporting that the false cases of rape/sexual assault are increasing with the passing year. Many of the judges of different courts have also said that misuse of law has become a new trend among women to settle their score with men with whom they were in a relationship earlier. Many courts showed concern about increasing cases of false rape accusations and call it a form of ‘terrorism’ and a concern for the judicial system.
In the year 2014, the Delhi Commission of Women presented a report stating that 53.2% of rape cases filed between 2013-2014 were false. This statistic was cited gleefully by Men’s Rights activists and the like to decry that women speaking out about rape or sexual violence were, in all probability that they are telling a lie or wanting to take revenge on their former male partner. This may be the reason that women have been often disbelieved when speaking out about gender-based violence, or rape cases. For example, one must take a look at Chinmayanand case, in which a college student accused a powerful politician and godman of rape, was put behind bars for defamation. However, there are an ample number of women who make false rape or sexual abuse allegations against men and cause them to suffer a lot; in many cases, the whole life of a man alleged of rape gets ruined even though he didn’t do such a heinous act.
Common Reasons Behind False Rape Accusations
Before moving further, let’s take a look at the reasons behind filing false rape cases or sexual assaults. In false cases of rape or sexual abuse, it is often seen that the act often is done by women from the educated or upper or upper-middle class. And lesser in women from lower classes. Generally, heartbreak, anger or other intentions drive women to file false rape cases. There may be several other factors behind filing false rape cases, some of which are listed below;
- Extorting Money
In most cases of rape accusations, abstracting money is the main motive. It is the most working way in which a woman either threats a man of filing a rape case or files a rape case when a man refuses to pay her demanded amount. People often get trapped in this trick as they don’t want to face a court trial because they have an assumption that getting into legal proceedings can be troublesome, especially in a sensitive case of rape.
- Seeking Revenge
In a majority of false rape accusations, if no intention to extort money is involved, another core reason may be seeking revenge. It may be because the woman was humiliated at the workplace or any other place publicly by the man, or any major disagreement which caused her to suffer (physically, mentally, or financially), and/or any/few of the family members or the whole family of the woman was humiliated, scolded or suffered by the man, or thrashing of the social reputation of the family of the woman by the man; such conditions may induce a woman to file a false rape accusation. In a nutshell, by filing a false rape case, the woman’s sole motive is to make the person suffer. And therefore, women are misusing the law by using it as a tool to make the man bow on his knees.
- Fame
There is also a class of women who believe in seeking fame as they love to be in the limelight. Women can go to lengths to seek fame and also some of them don’t hesitate in filing a false case of sexual assault against a well-known person or celebrity. We have many such examples where a woman had put a false rape accusation on well-known people in their sector or a public figure.
- Pressurize boyfriend to marry her
In some cases of false rape accusations, it is found that women file it to pressurize their boyfriend or live-in partner to marry them.
- Consensual act in a relationship turns to rape after breakup
One of the common reasons behind filing false rape cases is to level personal scores. When an unmarried couple part their ways after a long relationship, it is often seen that the female who was in the relationship and also had sex with her boyfriend, files a rape case against the same boy. Such women allege that her former male partner had made a physical relationship with her on the pretext of marriage.
Such other reasons may be behind the increasing number of false rape accusations. But have you ever thought, who suffers the most of such kinds of unsocial acts? It’s the rich, clear-hearted, or non-criminal nature of men from reputed families are mostly affected by false rape allegations. Even such rich men are the easy targets of women who are habitual of trapping such men into their love and afterward, they demand huge amounts from them and also warn the man that if he denies her condition she would file a false rape case which will not only tarnish the reputation of the person but also his family’s reputation. Most men find it less complicated to pay those women instead of losing their family reputation which can result in an irreparable loss. And they pay those wicked women and don’t take the help of the judiciary.
Women habitual of trapping rich and innocent men are well-versed with this psychology of innocent men and thus they are easy prey of these women. Therefore, innocence is not enough in this era where there is a chunk of women who first trap you in their love and then rob you by making allegations of rape or sexual assault even though their physical relationship with the man was consensual.
There are several cases of false rape allegations that came to light during court trials. Afterward, the nation came to know that men can’t be wrong each time. Due to this, the narrative of seeing men as playing with the honor of women began to change a little bit. However, our society is still not gender neutralize as seeing a headline of sexual abuse, it starts giving the man alleged of the act different tags like a rapist, molester, etc. without even waiting for the final judgment of the court.
Some cases of ‘False Rape Accusations
Gurugram woman files nine cases of rape against nine different men within a year
Ayushi Bhatia, a woman from Gurgaon had filed nine rape cases on nine different men at nine different police stations within a short span of one year in the same city-Gurgaon. The girl was exposed later and then was arrested for filing false cases, extortion, criminal intimidation, and blackmail.
Jabalpur lady files six different cases of rape against six different men
Another case was of a lady named Sonia Keswani from Jabalpur who gained so much media and public attention. The lady has filed six rape cases against five different men in the Jabalpur city within six years. She filed a rape case on the first man she implicated, got married to him, and then filed dowry, domestic violence, and rape cases against him as well. After this matter, from a period of 2021 to July 2022, she filed four more rape cases against four other different men.
Manager ends his life after a false accusation of sexual harassment
Amit Kumar, a manager in an MNC company, committed suicide on Aug 30 and left a 5-page suicide note alleging that the charges of sexual harassment were false, still, he went through extreme humiliation by his company.
Man loses 20 golden years of his life in a false rape case
A man named Vishnu Tiwari of Lalitpur had to spend two decades in jail for a crime he hadn’t committed. He was arrested in September 2000 in a rape case in which the woman, her husband, and her father-in-law testified that Vishnu had taken the woman’s advantages in the field. After proceedings, he was charged with sexual and physical assault on a woman when she was five in the condition where the woman was five months pregnant. However, after a long 20 years, the Allahabad High Court accepted the truth and released the man from jail.
Woman accuses a man of raping minor child
A Mumbai-based woman accused a 50 years-old man of raping her minor child. Subsequently, the man was arrested and imprisoned for two years. The woman filed a false complaint as the man knew about her affair with another man and could have told her husband about the matter.
There are an ample number of cases in which either the alleged person is imprisoned or struggling hard to save himself from imprisonment. Both the conditions; be it inside the jail or outside with a label of ‘rape’ case against a man is nothing less than a nightmare for him as it is not only mentally torturous but also involves physical, social, and financial torture. With many complexities, many men booked under the case of sexual assault or rape, end their life as they find it lesser struggling to end their lives as compared to the struggles they have to undergo during the legal proceedings in such cases. Therefore, the law needs to be modified from time to time to make it gender-neutral as men have also the right to live a respected, and happy life in different aspects of life; be it personal, professional, social, etc.
Men deserve to be loved, respected and given treatment as they offer to other human beings of the society.