BENGALURU: While it took the Indian judiciary four years to pronounce the judgement in the gruesome Delhi gang rape case which had outraged the entire country in
2012, there are many such victims in Bengaluru who are waiting for justice years after the crime was committed against them.
Many cases that were investigated and chargesheeted have been delayed because of slow judicial process. None of the 686 rape cases that were reported in the state in 2016 have seen conviction.
The Madiwala gang rape case, for instance, where a 22-year-old BPO employee was gang-raped on October 5, 2015 in a mini-bus by Yogesh (27) and Sunil (23), driver and cleaner of the bus is still under trial, though the police filed the charge sheet on January 15, 2016.
Similar is the 2014 Frazer Town gang rape case in which five people assaulted a girl on July 16. The police filed the chargesheet a few months after the crime, but the case is still on trial.
There are many such cases that are languishing in the courts. “Prolonged trials lead to fewer convictions as evidence would be diluted and witnesses lose interest. It reduces the fear of law among criminals,” DG&IGP R.K. Dutta had told Deccan Chronicle.
Surprisingly, the conviction rate in rape cases has drastically come down even after a fast-track court for
sexual violence cases was set up in 2013 following the Delhi gang rape case.
