Death penalty

Criminal justice system of the country has once more exhibited that the crime cannot go unpunished according to its nature and degree of severity both, and has lend credence to the fact, that the sanctity of the law was paramount as it was the guarantee of safety, security and dignity of the people. The horrendous acts of savagery laced with extreme ghastly proportions of gang rape and torture, committed on a 23 year old paramedic student in a moving bus that was to take her home on Dec 16 last year, shook and shattered the collective conscience of every soul in the country.  The indignation, the anger and the extreme ire which this hair raising act generated in every Indian, made the Police, the Government, and even the judiciary quite responsive to exert firmly, to act fast and to act severely in proportion to the nature of the grotesque act.  A fast track court of Delhi has awarded on 13th instant, death penalty for the rapists as the act fell under the “rarest of rare category”.
The macabre crime perpetrated by the convicts has no analogy even with the beasts as the extent thereof is hard to explain in words. The cries and shrieks of the helpless young woman did prove useless to move her tormentors while being subjected to the worst ordeal which ultimately consumed her life. That resulted in leaving no option with the justice delivery system excepting the extreme end of awarding the corporal punishment as people of such hardened criminal mindset and psyche, deserve not to live in the society any more, as that would prove perilous for the safety, security and dignity of the people especially the women. It is a travesty that a country with a rich cultural heritage of respecting womanhood to the extent of worshipping female deities such a horrifying crime is committed  against a young woman. All the charges against the accused were more than adequately proved and strongly ascertained, the ends of justice were fully met during the nine months’ long trial, leaving not an iota of doubt in the whole exercise of court proceedings.
The gruesome case was an open and shut case and facts, evidences, circumstantial events, proofs etc; all landed at the inevitable, i.e; death for the accused. The judge called the crime as “beastly” and “hair raising” and the judgement said, “Accordingly, the convicts be hanged by neck till they are dead”. This has vindicated the stand of the victim’s family as also the vast spectrum of the society expressing satisfaction at the verdict. The 18 year old juvenile convict accused in this case and believed to have actively participated in the commissioning of the crime, must be shell shocked on learning about the nature of judgement but nevertheless, the law must stand open to review in matters of deciding whether mere number of years or the extent of discretion and indulgence in ghastly committed crimes by the minors, should merely send the offender to a “reformatory home”. The law makers, the jurists, the academicians and the psychologists must ponder over the problem and make efforts towards determining and reducing the age of a “minor” accused of committing heinous crimes for purposes of facing the law.
The spurt in crimes committed against women and children in the country is a matter of concern and the punishment awarded to the accused in the case under reference, has the potential of proving as a deterrent but the matter does not end at the doors of the police, the judiciary and the legislature alone to make the society free of the lurking fear of the law offenders like the ones condemned in this case but the parents, the teachers and the political leaders have an increasing role to play in shaping the younger budding generation into a disciplined, responsible, sensitive and law abiding future citizens and to inculcate in them right traditions and training to respect human values and human dignity with special reference to the woman who happens to be a mother, a daughter,  a sister and a family binder and builder. Depravity of mind, disregard for others, deriving sadistic pleasures  and other addictions to vice etc; have in most of the cases, to be traced to the type of grooming at home and the quality of education received.

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