M A I N   N E W S

Tribune Impact
Protection for widow
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

The SSP also ordered constitution of a fresh medical board for thorough medical reexamination of the victim, whose first medical report conceals more than it reveals.

“I have studied the case file. I am convinced that a new medical board is necessary to find out the truth about the victim’s condition. We have asked the civil surgeon to head the board and give us a fresh report so that we can match the old report with the new one,” SSP Rakesh Agarwal told The Tribune.

It is significant that Satya’s medical report does not match with the condition in which she was brought to the hospital after the alleged crime. It mentions eight injuries on her body, but shows no injury to private parts - something Satya denies vehemently, fearing that the prime accused who are still absconding might have connived with doctors to destroy evidence.

“I was tortured beyond description. My plait was cut off. When I asked for water, the accused urinated in my face. What else does outraging the modesty mean? The FIR does not have my entire statement nor is the medical report true,” Satya alleged.

In fact, the Kapurthala police will have to investigate this case with the latest Supreme Court ruling on rape in mind. Further tightening the noose on the perpetrators of rape, the SC, in its March 20 order, has ruled that for the offence of rape, mere connection of male’s private part with that of a woman is sufficient and there is no defence available to the offenders that the sexual intercourse has not actually been completed, as is being maintained by the accused in Satya’s case.

The police will also have to consider the Supreme Court’s latest definition of the offence of “outraging a woman’s modesty”. The SC has clearly observed that a mere knowledge by a woman that her “modesty is likely to be outraged, is sufficient to constitute the offence without any deliberate intention of such outrage alone for its object.”

It is significant that Satya, on three occasions before being allegedly raped, submitted written complaints to the local police, stating that the accused had trespassed into her house and molested her by hitting on her private parts and pulling off her “dupatta”. The police, however, did nothing.

The SSP, meanwhile, assured fair probe in the case. He said teams had been constituted to arrest three prime accused, still at large. Today he posted six constables as against the four ordered by the high court for Satya’s protection. Of these, two are women.