In India, there are many laws using which perfectly innocent people can be arrested and then can be imprisoned without trial. Most Indian prison conditions are worse than the Nazi Concentration camps like Dachau or Auschwitz. In last 4 years alone, more than 95,000 women were arrested without trial under Section 498a of Indian Penal Code(IPC) which is a non-bailable offense. According to National Crime Record Bureau(NCRB) in year 2006, 31253 women were arrested under Section 498a (http://ncrb.nic.in/cii2006/cii-2006/Table%2012.2.pdf). These women were arrested even as thieves, molesters and other criminals roam freely. Most of these women are also abused in vulgar language, threatened, insulted by police officials as they arrest the women. Every year, newspapers carry scores of stories of rape and molestation by Indian police. Many women arrested without trial, investigation or evidence are Software Engineers, post graduates and doctors.
The women arrested under section 498a of IPC are considered guilty till proven innocent. Indian supreme court has cautioned Indian Parliament about possibility of unleashing of “legal terrorism” if the abuse of legal provisions of Section 498a continues. Still, the ruling UPA Government and parliament has ignored the recommendations of Supreme Court.
Indian police is poorly paid and the police stations are the money/bribe extortion centers. By paying a small bribe, one can file a complaint against one’s relatives under section 498a IPC to unleash terror on the family.
The president of India is a woman. The Congress Party which rules the nation with its other coalition partners is headed by a woman, Sonia Gandhi. The Government Minister for Women, Renuka Chowdhury has been completely silent about arrest of these 95,000 women during last 4 years.
The ruling Congress-UPA Government makes tall claims about its efforts for women’s empowerment. It claims to have enacted laws to protect women from harassment and domestic violence. The Government has made all these claims with an eye on the women’s votes.
The message to Indian women is very clear, “If you are a woman in India, you are not safe at all. You can be arrested under non-bailable offenses like Section 498a without trial, insulted, abused by your male accusers in the police stations as the police officials become silent spectators. It does not matter whether you are a Software Engineer, Doctor, Education or a Journalist. If you are accused under section 498a, you are bound to get arrested and get imprisoned. If you question the police actions, you can even be threatened of another couple of charges including that of prostitution.”
Most men do not think that their own sisters can be arrested under section 498a without trial or evidence. They are mostly interested in their own career and they never think about what laws government is enacting in the parliament and how many innocent women are harassed and tortured in Indian prisons.