For decades, the system has shielded the powerful — and with every delay in justice, it paves the way for the next crime
Sambeet Dash
News about crime against women is nothing new in my home state back home Odisha. Few days back a 20 year old girl named Soumyashree in the Balasore district of the state killed herself by self immolating as a protest against being sexually harassed by a college teacher. It’s not just that, a plethora of news coming from Odisha on media, social or otherwise regarding crimes against women including rapes and molestation is not only disgusting, disturbing as well.
Disgusting – can’t think of a better word to depict these incidents. Disturbing – coming from a state where the folks are known to be laid back, docile and mostly law fearing, though not necessarily law abiding. Not the case any more, if recent incidents are to be believed.
Every person has right to live. It hurts utmost when someone commits suicide by taking his or her life. And it hurts more, if that person happens to be young. Like every man and woman of their age, they too have a dream, but unwisely decide to procrastinate their unfulfilled dream by killing themselves.
When does a person decide to end life ? It’s not just because of the frustration with life, it’s more due to their lack of care or concern for rest of the world, which includes their near and dear ones.
If I feel suicidal for some reason, I may resist that thought for a moment, if I think of my family, my wife, my son or cat, if not me. Apparently the person ending his or her life don’t care about the loved one and go for it at the spurt of the moment, never getting a second chance to regret it later.
Suicides in college campuses are not uncommon. Surging teenage hormone gone wild can create havoc in heart and mind, which can be due to failure in romance, academics or bullying by others, or as this case alleged sexual harassment by teacher. It reminds me of this scene from the iconic movie 3 IDIOTS where a student kills himself due to his frustration at his creative and innovative project being pooh poohed by the Principal of the College.
The student Rancho played by the actor Aamir Khan complains about the mental stress the students undergo, leading to such avoidable tragedies. As the Principal gets defensive and refuses to take the blame, Aamir Khan replies – “I am rather blaming the entire system, not you Sir”.
My first memory of one such heinous incident, a crime though not suicide but murder, goes back to 1980 when as a 11 year old, I was not old enough to comprehend the depth it – yet old enough to recognize its evilness and impertinence to any civil society. It was the rape and murder of Chhabirani, the wife of a journalist who went above and beyond his job to expose the nexus of a cabal of crooks consisting of petty politicians, local officials and small time businessmen in coastal Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur, then part of the undivided Cuttack district. It was an unusual bold step for a journo.
The tragedy happened when chased by criminals, the journalist accompanied by his pregnant wife and child were trying to flee his village in the middle of night. The moon was pale as they tried to cross the BILUAKHAI river, one of several river distributaries criss crossing the vast Mahanadi delta in coastal Odisha. Here is where the details get sketchy. Some say the pregnant wife along with her little kid could not cope with his faster walking husband and fell behind getting separated for ever.
Another version – the man had to attend his nature’s call and took time to relieve himself near the sandy bed and wash clean with the river water as many villagers do. He lost some valuable time only to come back and regret later – for his wife was nowhere to be seen. We don’t know which one of these versions is true.
But what we know, the men on chase took their turns to rape Chhabirani to death along with her yet to be born child. Her semi buried body from the sands of river was recovered later in a decomposed state. But this incident survived the sands of time to become a folklore of the area for a long time to come. It was the age sans social media when internet and cell phones were strictly fantasy. TV was non existent.
“The SAMAJA”, the only widely circulated vernacular newspaper of the time with some reach to the interior parts of Odisha carried the news. The brutality of the crime against a pregnant woman raped and killed in cold blood caught the imagination of the common man of Odisha – at least in its thickly populated coastal belt. A local JATRA (Folk Troupe) made a lot of money acting an episode named RAPE and MURDER made out of this ghastly incident.
Laxman Mallick, the then MP of Jagatsinghpur from the Congress party was accused of shielding the perpetrators of this inexcusable act. It is said he was made a scapegoat, the fall guy as the entire chain of the higher ups, including Chief Minister, then ,J.B.Patnaik allegedly tried their best to protect their political turf by containing the fall out of the crime.
Time flew. Years later, I read the news of the berieved journalist getting remarried, becoming a father again and leading a low profile life.
Was justice ever delivered to Chhabirani then and those who commited the crime got punished ? Your guess is as good as mine. Nearly 50 years later will justice delivered to the deceased girl Soumyashree from Balasore. Again your guess is still same as good as mine !!!
(The writer is a technocrat and lives in Columbus. Views are personal.)
Both Chhabirani and Soumyshree cases stand on different footing. The former was a preplanned , gruesome , tortured and indescribable rape and murder which can’t be compared to later’s suicide case. Facts remain that the perpetrators are from powerful ruling party . Close on the hills of Soumyshree incident the Balanga murder case has exposed the police inaction and timely intervention to bring the culprits to justice. These two cases should be investigated by the State Crime Branch and trial should be first tracked to win the public trust in the State police.