No Law To Punish Woman Protecting 'Raja Beta': High Court In Rape Case
Pronouncing the verdict, the bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Sukhvinder Kaur also observed that family members, especially mothers, often have such blind love for their "precious" sons that, no matter how imperfect or villainous they might be, they are still regarded as 'Raja Betas'.
· www.ndtv.comThe Punjab and Haryana High Court has commuted a man's death sentence for the rape and murder of a five-and-a-half-year-old girl to rigorous imprisonment for life, and acquitted his mother, observing there is no IPC section to punish her for "trying to protect her Raja beta".
The murder, the court observed, was committed because of panic to destroy the evidence of rape and not a premeditated act. The court sentenced the convict to rigorous imprisonment for life with 30 years of jail without remission. It also increased the fine amount to Rs 30 lakh.
Pronouncing the verdict, the bench of Justices Anoop Chitkara and Sukhvinder Kaur also observed that family members, especially mothers, often have such blind love for their "precious" sons that, no matter how imperfect or villainous they might be, they are still regarded as 'Raja Betas'.
"After discovering that her Raja-beta was not as gullible as his name suggested, and he had assaulted and brutally killed a girl-child aged five, prioritised shielding her son instead of informing the
police or seeking justice for the girl," the court said, acquitting the mother of all charges against her.
"This social attitude, however appalling, is not new; it is deeply embedded in the region's patriarchal mindset and culture. She would have been shocked upon seeing the girl murdered by her Raja-beta, yet her orthodox conditioning attempted to protect her Raja-beta," the court said.
A trial court in 2020 condemned Virender alias Bholu to death and sentenced his mother Kamla Devi to rigorous imprisonment for conspiracy and destruction of evidence in the 2018 rape and murder case.
"Kamla Devi's only fault is that she was trying to protect her Raja-beta, for which she cannot be punished under the Indian Penal Code; however condemnable her conduct may be. Thus, there is no legally admissible evidence to make out a case for criminal conspiracy
or for destruction of evidence against Kamla Devi," the court said.
The court said that an analysis of the evidence "fully establishes that the chain of circumstances is complete, unbroken, and leads to the sole inference of Virender's guilt beyond any reasonable doubt".
"In light of the fact of discovery of body of the girl, who had been raped before she was murdered, and its recovery from the compound
of the house of Virender, the prosecution has been able to make out a case against Virender beyond a reasonable doubt," it said.
The high court, in its December 23 verdict, observed that while deterrence through threat of death may still be a promising strategy in some frightful areas of murderous crime, to espouse a monolithic theory of its deterrent efficacy is unscientific.
It also observed that there was no allegation to substantiate that there was no possibility of the reformation of the convict on the death row, which creates an alternative view that would not validate the capital punishment.
"Therefore, when two views are possible before this court, to impose or not to impose a death sentence, then the view for not awarding the capital punishment must be preferred over the other extreme irreversible sentence," it said.
It said the convict has no criminal record, and his conduct in prison is not violative, which makes reformation possible.
"To save the other kids and females, the convict must stay inside the four walls of the prison until he is closer to the sunset of his virility," it observed.
The girl was raped and murdered in May 2018 by Virender, an employee of her father who worked as a small-time tent installer. Virender had been working with him for about five to six years.
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Punjab And Haryana High Court, Rape, Rape Case