The facts don’t add up

Another incident that wonderfully embellishes the slogan India Shining took place between last Saturday and Sunday, where an American exchange student was ‘gangraped’ by six guys at one of their homes. I will not cast aspersions on the character of either of the seven people or the kind of people they were etc. etc. But, there are a number of things about this story that baffle me.

But first, a summary of events as reported by the media:

* Girl goes with friend (“Annie”, say the papers) and some guys to a bar
* She had met some of them earlier (allegedly)
* Succumbs to their pressure to drink until she is pretty hammered
* Is supposed to meet another friend but instead decides to go to the home of one of these people she’s just met
* Locks herself in bathroom when they try their moves on her
* Meanwhile, Annie has gone
* Girl leaves bathroom and collapses on mattress and is raped
* Next morning, she leaves with two of the accused and goes to a chemist and takes a contraceptive pill
* Three days later launches police complaint
* A week later, 5 are arrested; one still absconding (as of this time)

A large chunk of this is from the girl’s own statement given to the police, which was handed over to journalists, which one highly ‘responsible’ newspaper decides to print in full, complete with near-textual pornography. Said publication had 70 women protestors yelling and screaming outside the day after it was in print. I have just learnt that another publication has gone ahead and published the statement too. (Upon re-checking, I learnt that the publication had removed the page from its site)

One of the accused’s phoney-baloney excuses after being apprehended was, “We didn’t know she would cry rape”. And why was that? Because she behaved “so normally after the incident that we didn’t think she’d file a complaint”. Interesting theory. Considering a number of them had just met her the night before, how could they have any way of knowing what she was like when she was behaving “normally”? Or was it just the ‘well-known fact’ that “firangi (foreign) chicks are easy” that made them think it was normal?

That being said, the girl was probably scared that the accused would kill her upon discovering that she was going to file a police complaint and so, decided to keep mum. It’s also plausible that she was paralysed with fear at the realisation that she’d been raped and so, was in no position to scream and shout. Even when visiting the chemist, there’s a chance that she was still in no state of mind to yell for help.

That part of the story is plausible. But, it’s the section before they got to the flat that baffles me.

First off, they go to a bar and she’s forced to drink before being spiked. Completely possible. She was supposed to go and meet some friend afterwards and yet, decided to go off with these people. A little dodgy. Her friend Annie doesn’t see fit to take care her drunken out-of-towner friend. Pushing it a little. Annie abandons her with these six characters, half of whom she’s (the US national) has never met before and sets off for trip to Darjeeling? Completely ridiculous.

And now, Annie’s in Darjeeling and has reportedly assured the cops that she’ll come back soon enough and testify. Whether she was truly so oblivious that she couldn’t see a downside to leaving a friend alone with some strangers or was hand-in-glove with the six (maybe even acting as a pimp for them) is something for hot topic activists to debate and discuss. I’m just saying it doesn’t all add up.

The boys’ Orkut profiles are flooded with hateful messages (or scraps as they’re called, apparently) from all sorts of people, wishing upon the sextet some of the nastiest things that have been heard of (this side of Abu-Ghraib anyway). Regardless, their lives and those of their families are well and truly damaged, regardless of whether or not they are proven guilty.

Which opens up another can of worms. Trial by Media. Is it fair for the media to be charging people guilty or innocent and screaming it out to the world? That being said, isn’t public dissent the best form of justice in a scenario where they judiciary takes years and years to punish criminals? That’s a topic for another time.