Dealing with a widespread crime

Varnika Kundu is seen with her father Varinder Singh Kundu at Panchkula near Chandigarh. The police on Wednesday arrested Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala. Courtesy: PTI

The recent stalking case in Chandigarh would not have perhaps received such wide publicity had it involved a less prominent victim and an accused. The girl stalked is the daughter of a senior IAS officer posted with the Haryana Government while the alleged culprit is the son of the State’s BJP chief. Expectedly, the media narrative has focussed on the politics that is being played out, whereas the need is to discuss the issue of stalking and the manner it has been tackled so far. Until just four years ago, stalking was not even considered a crime serious enough to deserve an unambiguous provision in the Indian Penal Code. The best that we had was Section 509 of the IPC which referred to stalking as “word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman”. The onus on proving that a particular act of stalking was meant to insult the modesty was on the complainant. Thus, a stalker could target the victim and cause her mental harassment and get away so long as his actions did not ‘intend’ to outrage the victim’s modesty. This was clearly a travesty of justice. It needed the tragic 2012 Nirbhaya case to change the law. In 2013, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act was adopted, which, inter alia, defined stalking as a separate offence against women. Section 354-D of the Act made physical and electronic stalking a punishable offence, and it came along with an expanded scope of the terms that defined sexual violence against women. The interesting part of the new provisions against stalking is that it made the ‘intention’ of the offender irrelevant so long as the victim rebuffs the outreach. Sub-section 1 of Section 354-D explains the act of stalking in the following words: “Any man who follows a woman and contacts, or attempts to contact such woman to foster personal interaction repeatedly despite a clear indication of disinterest by such woman… commits the offence of stalking”. Sub-section 2 of the same provision deals with the use of electronic communication for stalking. The criminal amendment law had been widely welcomed by all sections of the society, although there were demands that it ought to have been more stringent. Various dimensions of sexual violence against women as well as the understanding of what constituted rape and molestation, were effectively tackled, and these were based on the Justice JS Verma committee’s recommendations. The Verma panel had been constituted in the wake of the Nirbhaya case to recommend steps to strengthen laws that dealt with sexual offences against women. It was expected that the 2013 changes in the law to deal with stalking would address the crime effectively. But figures put out by the National Crime Records Bureau have been disheartening. There has been a staggering increase in the number of stalking cases registered — from 4,700 cases in 2014 to 6,227 cases in 2015 — since the criminal amendment Act was passed. This can be partly explained by the resolve of the victims to lodge complaints, but it also means that the law is not being deterrent enough. Perhaps the conviction process allows many offenders to get away, especially when the cases are not high-profile in nature and ‘informal’ arrangements are made to either hush them up or weaken them in the absence of media glare. According to official figures, just 26 per cent of stalking cases resulted in convictions in 2015. the accused bail in 84 per cent of the cases, thus potentially damaging the investigation process. This, despite the fact that 95 per cent of the cases resulted in chargesheets. The cumbersome legal process has played its role too. Eighty four per cent of stalking cases were pending before various courts in 2015, even as stalking cases went up by 33 per cent. It is understandable that graver instance of sexual violence such as rape have dominated the popular narrative. But the media is full of reports of cases of stalking that have led to serious consequence, including rape and murder. In many of these cases, the victims had not lodged complaints of stalking because they had not taken the issue seriously or were worried by the lengthy legal process and social consequences. At times, even when the victim had complained to the police, there had been inaction and the situation worsened. An year ago, a 16-year old girl had been stalked for weeks and then raped and murdered at her home in east Delhi. She had complained to the police about being stalked, but received no relief. While cases of stalking are being reported from across India, Delhi has the dubious distinction of having been dubbed the ‘stalking capital’ of the country. According to the NCRB, it ranks second, next to Maharashtra. In 2015, it accounted for 18 per cent of all stalking cases countrywide and a staggering 97 per cent of such complaints from among Union Territories. It’s time stalking is taken more seriously. (The writer is a senior political commentator and public affairs analyst) Disclaimer: The opinions, beliefs and views expressed by the various authors and forum participants on this website are personal and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs and views of ABP News Network Pvt Ltd.