The young girl named Zakia Sultana Rupa was raped and subsequently killed brutally by some transport workers. After 173 days of committing these heinous crimes, four culprits of total five got capital punishment and another got seven years rigorous imprisonment along with one lakh taka fine from the subordinate court on 12 February.
In the verdict, the court ordered to handover the fined amount and the bus used in this incident to the family of the victim. This is also an exceptional initiative by the court. Although there are instances of receiving compensations but the initiative of giving the bus used in these rape and murder case is rare. However, it is not possible to understand the reason behind the court’s decision at this stage without reading the copy of the judgment. Nevertheless, the strict liability principle of law imposes an obligation on the employer to take responsibility of the employee(s) sometimes and the court may consider this principle although there is doubt whether the decision will remain the same in appeal.
It is undoubtedly praiseworthy that the concerned agencies finished all the trial procedures of these horrific crimes within six months from the date of the incident and gave such exemplary punishments to all the perpetrators. The incident in brief for those whose memory has become gloomy: Rupa was a law student apart from doing a job as well in Mymensingh. On the night of the incident, she was returning to Mymensingh by Chaya Paribahan after attending the teachers’ registration examination in Bogra. In the meanwhile, when all other passengers of the bus got off, Rupa was first raped by the transport workers at Kalihati of Tangail and later the criminals confirmed her death and left the body in the forest of Madhupur. Subsequently, police recovered an unidentified body and following an autopsy, the body was buried. Reading the news in the media, Rupa’s relatives went to Madhupur Police Station and identified her with photographs. Later, police arrested all the five accused and they confessed their guilt under section no. 164 before the magistrate.
Rupa’s rape and murder were very much similar to the Indian ‘Nirbhoya’ incident. Like in India public opinion was raised against this heinous crime especially in social media; everyone was seeking fair trial urgently. And finally, we are fortunate enough to see a speedy trial which is rare in the context of Bangladesh. However, there are many impacts of the quick trial in a society. Before forgetting the pains and sufferings of a victim, it would give a message that criminals will never go unpunished. In addition, the relatives of the victim may feel relaxed by placing some relief to the permanent wound of their hearts. Not only justice must be done, but also it must be seen to be done.
Indisputably it can be said that after Rupa’s rape and murder, the working women and others travelling by the public transport at night were highly concerned about their safety. In our country, women are constantly subject to sexual harassment in public transports even in the daylight; whereas this incident threatened their security outside the home. However, in India, not only mass people but also the administration and the policy makers realised very well about the necessity of changing the law. Consequently, in 2013, they formed a committee under the leadership of former Chief Justice J.S. Verma, to reform the rape-related laws. Most of the recommendations of that committee were implemented in India as well.
Regrettably, our policymakers have not yet got this message that we are also in the same position to reform the obsolete colonial law after so much brutal rape and killing incidents including against the infants. The definition of rape enumerated under section 375 of the Penal Code, 1860 itself is faulty where rape can only be committed by penile penetration to the vagina without having consent. This more than hundred and fifty years old definition of penile-vagina rape is no longer enough to cover the crime sufficiently. Moreover, in this modern era, marital rape is no more exempted from being punished in any civilised country of the world. Like us, there is also no existence of unscientific “two-finger” test to prove the rape. Nor there is any attempt to questioning the character of the victim during the trial to disprove the offence.
India brought about massive changes after getting recommendations from the Verma committee to deal with the offence of rape properly. In order to define correctly, they even placed the word “sexual assault” instead of using “rape”. Now, the offence is no longer limited to women only rather they also included children as well and widen the ‘penile-vagina’ rape to penetration by any object and any extent to the vagina, anus or mouth. Further, following the recommendations of the Verma Committee, the Indian government took initiatives to dispose of these kinds of sensitive cases speedily.
However, according to our current law, there is no way of being victims of rape for male children. Furthermore, we do not categorise rape depending upon the gravity of the crime. We do not have any special provision for pregnant-women rape, gang rape, rape in police custody, rape of patients in the hospital or rape of an employee by a government official by using his official capacity whereas each of these crimes has different significance and requires different levels of punishment.
We all are very happy because of the exemplary trial of Rupa rape and murder case. However, in this case, the self-proclaimed offenders are belonging to the marginalised section of the society. They might not have been able to delay the judgment or bias the proceedings. After the rape and killing of Shohagi Jahan Tanu of Comilla on 20 March 2016, the country also observed massive protest to claim justice for Tanu. But the police are still struggling to submit charge sheet against the perpetrators. Similarly, after the killing of the famous journalist couple Sagar-Runi, many influential journalists led the movement, but due to some unknown reasons the criminal(s) are not brought to justice yet.
Recently, two indigenous sisters have allegedly been raped in the hill tract area. Subsequently, they have been disappeared suddenly from the hospital and police have denied taking their case from the very beginning. But each and every citizen of this country belongs to the state and everybody has equal rights to get justice immediately irrespective of his/her identity. We do not only want to see speedy justice if the criminal is not wealthy or influential but also want justice to be equally applicable to all effectively.
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