NGO questions rise in cases of cruelty

NGO questions rise in cases of cruelty

Raising concern over the rise in cases of cruelty in West Bengal against women by their husbands or relatives but low rates of conviction, a non-government organisation has approached both the State government and the State Human Rights Commission. 

According to the statistics revealed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last month or the year 2012, the number of cases registered under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the State was 19,885 — about 18.6 per cent of those recorded in the country, which totalled about 1.06 lakh cases. 

Referring to the NCRB data, members of the city-based NGO “Hridaya,” pointed out that while conviction in the rest of the country in cases registered under the Section was 15 per cent, it stood around 4.4 per cent in West Bengal. 

“This begs the question whether or not most of these cases were registered by the women with the motive of falsely implicating their spouses and his relatives?” Amit Gupta, secretary, Hridaya. 

The NCRB data over the past three years points out that conviction of cases registered under Section 498A varies between four and six per cent while the number of cases has increased by 11 per cent from 2010 to 2012. 

West Bengal registered 30,984 cases of crime against women in 2012 — the highest in the country — of which 64 per cent were registered under Section 498A of the IPC, Mr. Gupta pointed out. 

“Our objective is to spread awareness about the high number of cases registered for cruelty against women by their spouses and relatives. The law enforcement agencies should have specific guidelines to register cases under this section as majority of the cases are not ending in conviction,” he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/ngo-questions-rise-in-cases-of-cruelty/article4875713.ece 

Is India's suicide law being misused?

Is India's suicide law being misused?

Last year, more than 13,000 farmers killed themselves in India.

Most were saddled with steep debts, having failed to pay back loans they had taken from banks, micro-finance companies and money lenders after their crops failed. Farm suicides - nearly 300,000 since 1995 - are India's shame, a colossal national tragedy.
But, can the lenders be lawfully charged with abetting such suicides?
Going by India's laws, yes. The country's 153-year-old penal laws say abetting suicide can fetch the offender up to 10 years in prison and a fine.
In May, Sudipta Sen, a businessman who allegedly defrauded thousands of depositors in the eastern state of West Bengal, was charged with abetting the suicide of a "depressed" investor.

Jiah Khan's mother accused Mr Pancholi of abusing her daughter

So was Suraj Pancholi, who was arrested after his girlfriend, Bollywood actress Jiah Khan, killed herself last month.
Mr Pancholi spent time in prison after police announced they intended to charge him with abetment. He was bailed on Monday, with the judge saying he did not appear to have a motive for inciting his girlfriend to kill herself.
Tuesday's papers reported a similar incident. The former boyfriend of a film editor, who allegedly took her life, has been detained and charged with abetment of suicide in Mumbai. Reports said she had accused her boyfriend of rape and, more recently, he had called off their planned wedding.
India's Supreme Court has repeatedly said that to convict a person for abetting suicide, it has to be proved that they instigated the suicide or that "there was a clear intention to commit the offence".
"It's not easy to prove," leading lawyer KTS Tulsi tells me. "It's like showing the gun, showing the poison [to the victim] and telling him or her, 'go ahead and die'. That's the kind of active facilitation which is not easy to prove."
No wonder the conviction rate in cases of abetment to suicide is abysmally low - 1-2%, Mr Tulsi says. More than 135,000 people took their lives in India in 2012 - more men than women, and the majority of them married.
Mr Tulsi accuses the police of abusing the law. "The law is very clear about how abetment should be defined. Unfortunately, our police are not literate enough in grasping the finer definitions of laws. The result is unnecessary harassment of people," he says.
Legal experts believe India still needs the law, considering the large number of women who still take their lives following dowry demands. More than 8,000 dowry deaths were reported in India last year, according to the National Crime Records Bureau. A third of the offenders were convicted. Lawyers believe many of these convictions related to the suicide of a dowry victim were secured after proving the abetment charge.
However, India possibly needs to scrap the other colonial-era law that makes it illegal to take your life. It is a crime that can fetch you a year of prison time. England scrapped a similar law in 1961, but the former colony still persists with what many believe is a retrograde measure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-23140888