Rising threat of fake rape cases in India

Through this column of your daily, I would like to highlight the rising threat of fake rape cases in India.

Since the amendment of the new rape law in 2013, various false rape cases have come forward which has put a threat on the misuse of the law for various motives. In 2014, the Delhi Commission of Women put out a report stating that about 53.2% of the rape cases filed between April 2013 and July 2014 were false. Along with that it is also stated that most of the women speaking about rape or sexual violence were all lying or taking revenge on men like the Chinmayanand case of 2019, where a law student in Uttar Pradesh accused a politician of rape and sexual harassment to her but later it was found to be false and the girl was put behind bars for defamation.

In this context, the media should also be held responsible for the encouragement of such activities as sometimes when this kind of incidents happen, the media instead of providing us the facts regarding that matter gives its own conclusion to it. Even sometimes the authorities seem to encourage such activities as a report published by metropolitan daily on 27 September, 2018 stated that a girl in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh was pressurized by the cops to file a false rape case against her friend on religious grounds but when she refused to do it she was abused and slapped by the authorities for befriending a Muslim man. This kind of incidents clearly demonstrates how the law has been misused for seeking various motives.

Each and every law is made for the protection of the citizens of a nation but when the law itself becomes a tool for oppression instead of giving protection, then it leads to chaos in society.

Dibyojyoti Brahma,

Cotton University