Poverty changes people. But
when there are buyers, there is no end poverty can go to sell itself. This fact
has been proven recently in the much hyped Unnao rape case.
In this famous case of crime
which was highlighted by media day and night, a woman had accused her live-in
partner and some of his friends of raping her. As per reports, she was living
with the man for some time and the man had promised to marry her. Later, as the
relationship got sour, she filed a “rape case” on the man and his friends. Many
people say this was a typical fake case; similar to the ones filed by spurned lovers and discarded live-in partners. But the men were arrested for real and put in the
jail. It tarnished their and their family's image. Recently the men had come out of the jail on bail. And then the woman was found to have been set on fire, and died. In hospital before she died, she accused the very same men for setting her on fire.
There are several angles to
this case, but if we look at end-to-end story, we can understand what would have
happened. Several women stay in physical relationship with men for years and
when the relationship is broken, they accuse the men for “rape”. Police also
file such cases as rape cases. This is wrong. In such cases, it can’t be called
rape since at the time it happened, the couple had done it consensually. Women
can’t file such a case as a pressure technique to force the concerned men to
marry them. Such fake cases tarnish the image of not only the man but his
family and some of such men do end up retaliating. It may be possible that in this case the
men would have retaliated. Still, it is difficult to believe that the men would
be so reckless that they would do such a crime while they had just come out on
bail. Such a decision would have been suicidal. But if the men did it directly
or indirectly, we can easily see that there intention was revenge.
It is a matter of probe but
it is possible that someone else would have done this to the woman to frame the men. Since it is common knowledge that whatever
happened to this woman, police were sure to arrest those men. It is also
possible that the woman did self-immolation in order to frame the men since she
knew that her fake-rape case was weak and the men were bound to go free sooner
or later. There are several clues which point to this, including the following:
1. No
one saw any man setting her on fire so we can't be sure what really happened before she was spotted burning
2. If
some men would have set her on fire, why did they let her run away? Since she ran
away, there was a great chance of survival. So if they wanted her dead, why did
not they really kill her?
3. She
was spotted running for about 1 Km while being on fire. Her first natural
response should have been to dowse the fire by throwing herself on the soil or
in the grass. But in an over-dramatic scene, she was running while on fire. And she ran for a great distance of 1 Kilo meter; before she went unconscious. No
one does that. It seems she wanted herself to be seen burning by maximum people
possible (to ensure media coverage).
Looking at the clues from
the incident, it might be a possibility that the woman set herself on fire in
order to frame the men and to create a sensation. To dramatize it, she ran to a
distance while on fire. Perhaps she had assumed that she would survive. This is
also proven by her last recorded statement from the hospital where she was
recorded as asking for a confirmation that she would survive. She said, "But I would survive, right?" I know this is a
speculation and merely a theory; and police should investigate it with an open
eye. Anything is possible. People setting themselves or others on fire or
harming themselves in order to frame their enemies is nothing new.
At the same time, media’s
tendency to pick up random cases to target is also very curious. Unnao is in
Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh has been crime-infested for decades, mainly from
the era it was ruled by Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Law
and order in the state deteriorated to unrecoverable extent. The BJP came to
power in the state recently after promising a crime-free state. Chief Minister
Yogi Adityanath who is known for his high-handedness against crime took the
matter in his own hands. He ensured that UP Police was ruthless against
criminals. I was in UP during the time he took over and witnessed the changes myself. Every day some big-shot criminal was killed or arrested by the police. Finally, law and order was much into control.
Obviously, opposition and the media houses hands-in-glove with them won’t
like it. This seems to be the reason why media chose to highlight only Unnao
case while factually grave crimes against women happen all over the country.
Their intent is to prove that Yogi Adityanath has failed in improving
law-and-order in the state, which would make a strong point for return of
SP/BSP’s “Gunda Raaj”. Also, the timing was "politically right" since people were already up in arms after Hyderabad rape case; and media wanted to channelize this anger towards Yogi's Uttar Pradesh.
At the same time if you are
following social media you would have noticed that in social media posts, Brahmins are specifically being targeted
in this case, since one of the accused is said to be a Brahmin. There was a
hash-tag on Twitter which clearly targeted Brahmins for this crime. It is a
sham. The political mind behind this is simple. Using the British formula of
“divide and rule”, evil forces have been trying to make Brahmins and Rajputs fight each other. Since Yogi Adityanath is a Rajput, the attempt in targeting
Brahmins is to make them get angry with the CM. People have to prove this attempt
futile by staying united.
Here are my conclusions in
this case:
1. If
we see end-to-end story, the Unnao rape case is not a simple crime but it looks
like a case of fake rape allegation and later extortion angles can’t be ruled
out
2. There
is a clear attempt to target BJP ruled UP government in this case, since it had
promised to save the state from Gunda Raj of SP/BSP.
3. There
is an attempt to spread hatred in society and divide Hindus by specifically
targeting Brahmins.
Now coming to my comment on
poverty, with which I had started this article. After the victim died, her
family members started putting demands on the state government which was almost
an “extortion” like scenario. The victim’s sister demanded a government job;
her brother demanded a gun license; and her family demanded a big house. All these demands were being made while media was targeting UP government day and night. Result? State government agreed to all their demands. Government job will be
given, gun license will be given and two flats will be given to the family
since the family has too many members to be accommodated in one flat. Normally large compensation is given to deceased if they are the sole bread-winner of their family. But in this case it seems it was given to make peace with angry protesters.
It seems that while in other
places, families of victims want justice but in Unnao, such a family wants gun
license, govt job, 2 flats and much more. It may be more profitable for them to
milk the opportunity for money, rather than seek justice. After all, the dead
can't see, and money will help them in future more than justice would do.
Therefore, Unnao rape case
is not a simple case where you can easily take sides. Think again before
lighting that candle and creating that Twitter outrage.
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