Victims of 18 cases of violence against women from across Tamil Nadu and their family members shared their struggle in the fight for justice at the public hearing organised by the non-governmental organisation, Evidence, here on Saturday.
While the affected women belonged to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in 15 cases in which the perpetrators were predominantly caste Hindu men, in the remaining three cases, the victims were from caste Hindu communities.
The cases included incidents of rape and murder, rape and other types of sexual violence faced by the women.
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The issues faced by the victims ranged from delay in filing of FIRs by the police, non-release of compensation even after courts convicting the accused, ‘kangaroo courts’ conducted by the police to work out a ‘compromise’ with the victims and inefficiencies and deliberate attempts by the prosecution to sabotage the case during trial in favour of the accused.
A. Kathir, Executive Director, Evidence, said that in a majority of cases, the victims had been kept in the dark about the progress of the case without educating them on their rights. “We had intervened in a majority of cases. Despite the intervention, there have been delays in getting justice,” he said.
He said that analysis of huge volumes of cases done by his organisation has revealed that in 80 % of the cases in which medical examination of the victims were necessary, it was not done until 20 days after the crime was reported.
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In cases where SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act was invoked, he said that while the Act demanded setting up of special courts in every district, only six districts in Tamil Nadu has such special courts until now.
He stressed on the need for changes in the legislations that deal with sexual assault cases.
“As in cases filed under SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, all sexual assault cases, including those in which the victims are non-Dalits, must be dealt with differently. There should be women Investigating Officers in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police and financial compensation should be same as the amount provided to victims of SC ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” he added.
Vanni Arasu of Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Margaret Kalaiselvi, women’s rights activist, Prabhakar, academician, Shalin Maria Lawrence, activist, and Deepalakshmi, activist, were part of the panel that conducted the hearing.