Sexual Harassment and Rape are often seen as a dominance of males in our society. Though this social evil has been in our society from the existence of mankind or civilization, it has met the transition from male dominant society to a woman-driven era. The act of rape or any form of sexual assault can’t be advocated. However, in this ultra-modern era, women are using rape laws maliciously to meet their cruel intentions.
No one can evaluate the consequences of false cases of rape and sexual assaults as they can vary from putting a man behind bars for some days to years as well. It doesn’t mean the actual rapists should be left to roam freely in society. But, we are just focussing on the rape cases that are framed falsely to seek revenge from males; in the form of mental or financial satisfaction.
We all understand that a man is the one who carries the responsibilities of his whole family so if a man gets trapped into such false cases, not only his but also the life of his dependents gets affected of it. The severity of the consequences of such cases can’t be determined. In the last few years, more and more false cases of rape have come to light. In a nutshell, such cases are witnessing an alarming increment in India with every passing year. And many men have to lose their reputation not in their community but also in society and their workplace even before they find guilty in the same matter. It’s also a social menace that we already declare a man guilty of rape before the court doe in the case of sexual abuse or rape.
There are an ample number of false cases of rape/sexual assault/sexual harassment that have come to light in the last few years.
According to statistics from National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), about 74% of rape cases filed under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) end up acquitting the accused as the allegations made against the men were found to be false.
Consensual Acts turn to rape after differences or breakup
We have witnessed multiple cases where women file fake rape cases against men when they got separated or after the breakup. Women take such steps driven by their malicious intentions that cost their male partners their social reputation, hard-earned money, and sometimes their career as well.
In one of such matters, the chief of Chhattisgarh’s women’s commission, Kiranmayee Nayak, had said, “If a married man lures a girl into an affair, she must understand whether the man is lying to them and whether he will help them survive or not. If that is not the case, both of them, mostly the women, approach the police.“
She further said, “In most of the cases, girls have a consensual relationship, a live-in setup, and then file an FIR (First Information Report) for rape after their separation or breakup.“
In another case of the same nature, the Delhi High Court made an observation in 2017, “This court had observed on number of occasions that the number of cases where both persons, out of their own will and choice, develop a consensual physical relationship when the relationship breaks up due to some reason, the women use the law as a weapon for vengeance and personal vendetta.”
The Court further said, “They tend to convert such consensual acts as an incident of rape may be out of anger and frustration thereby defeating the very purpose of the provision. This requires a clear demarcation between the rape and consensual sex especially in the case where a complaint is that consent had been given on promise of marriage.“
The Court’s ruling came while denying a plea of a 29-year-old lady, who had filed a case against her husband seeking action in the rape case that had happened before tying the knot with the man in 2015.
These days, we get to hear more judgments and statements by several courts in India while hearing cases of sexual abuse, rape, or sexual misconduct. In one line, you can say the false cases filed for the malicious agenda or personal vendettas have come up as a menace in this modern era. It shows the true face of our legal system where a woman has been given rights considering women as the victims and men as natural aggressors or dominators. The violation of the law’s general tendency of protecting victims is being misused by the women of the modern era but with ill-tempered. It’s not only giving women the benefit of the law but also pushing their cruel intentions to come out even on trivial matters of any sort of dispute, disagreements, etc.
We are describing below some such cases that have highlighted how much need of amendments to the existing Rape Laws in India are there in this modernizing era.
In 2018, a mother alleged that his own 20-year-old son of raping her. In this case, the son spent 1.5 years in jail. Later his mother accepted that the filed rape case was false. She disclosed that she did this because her son was getting more aggressive day by day and there was no male member in the family put control over him.
In another case reported, a 22-year-old woman was arrested by Gurugram Police for allegedly extorting money from a man. She also threatened the man to falsely file the charges of rape if he refused to marry her or didn’t hand over money to her. When the man denied her conditions she wrote in a Facebook post that the man Sarvjeet had molested her and also threatened her with dire consequences. The people came into action right after the filing of the case and took the man into custody. However, after 4 years of long-suffering, Sarvjeet got a clean chit in the case and was acquitted of all the charges made by the woman named Jasleen.
In another case, a man, Jeevan Kishore who was married and had two children, works as a Halwai or Sweet maker in New Delhi. He came into a physical relationship with a single mother who had two children. Kishore used to lend her money, pay for her rent sometimes, and for medical costs as well because the woman was financially too weak. She also got paid for her son’s illness as well as his funeral when he died. Afterward, the lady started demanding more and more money from Kishore and also threatened him that if he won’t give her money, she would accuse him of rape. Hearing this, he was dumbstruck and couldn’t even react to it.
And the woman did so eighteen months later. When the trial started and went on, the Court found that it was a false case of rape as they had a consensual sexual relationship. After Kishore was acquitted, he said, “My wife was angry with me over my unfaithfulness but she knew I was incapable of rape. I thank God the judge realized it was a false case. But for 18 months, I burned with shame every time I went out or met anyone.”
Vivek Deveshwar, a Bangalore-based software engineer who is also running a men’s rights group said that he has come across many such cases that cause men to suffer a lot. As a result, they got too shattered and their trust in the relationship has completely vanished. Due to this, they withdrew themselves from society as they can’t even determine whom to trust and got shivered when thinking about another relationship.
The urgency of the reconsideration of Rape Laws in India can be determined by a false rape case filed against a man Vishnu. In that matter of false rape case, Vishnu has been in jail for a long period of 20 years. Eventually, the Allahabad High Court ordered to release him as the allegations of rape were false. The Allahabad Court accepted that the trial had “materially erred” during convicting him. The Court’s acquittal decision came after considering of the medical examination report which showed that there was no semen or injuries on the prosecutrix, who was five months pregnant at the time she was claimed of raping her. On his acquittal, Vishnu said, “How do I start my life at 43?” He also showed us the severity of such cases as during his jail period, he lost his parents, one of his brothers but couldn’t attend their funerals as well. Most of his parental fields got sold in paying lawyers’ fees and the world has changed so much in 20 years. Though the Court directed the officials to help him in his rehabilitation. However, such efforts can’t compensate for what he had lost due to a false rape made against him over a land dispute.
There are many such cases that have ruined the life of man which is not only a shameful thing for humanity but also the law. The dark side of the law is that there is no law for males to protect their rights.
As per the above examples, statements of various judges, and judgments, now you can understand why there is a need for reconsideration of Rape Laws in India.