The President Takes Over

by Bhaskar Sarkar

Barbaric Punishments for Barbaric Crimes

  The President continued his efforts to make every one feel that he meant business. He decided to start with punishing some perpetrators of barbaric crimes. He asked his Legal Advisor to check if any persons had recently been convicted of dowry deaths, throwing acid at a person, stripping of women in a public place and gang rapes. The Legal Advisor checked and confirmed that the Delhi High Court had confirmed sentence of three persons found guilty of burning their daughter-in-law for dowry and three youths for kidnapping and gang raping a minor girl. The Rajasthan High Court had also confirmed the sentence of three youths for throwing acid on the face of a girl. The court had also passed strictures against the police for not perusing the case properly. Four village elders of a village in UP had been found guilty of stripping a schedule cast woman for allegedly having an affair with a higher caste young man.

  The President said that barbaric punishments for those guilty should be organized on the following Sunday at Talkatora Stadium, New Delhi. The guilty would be brought to Delhi for the punishments. The time for the event would be 5 PM. The event would be covered live by all channels of Doordarshan. The other television channels were also welcome to cover it if they wanted to. The event would be given wide publicity in the media and entrance to spectators into the stadium would be free. The policemen against whom the court had passed strictures for improper investigation should be dismissed and tried as accessories to the crime.

  It was 4 PM on the Sunday afternoon. The Talkatora stadium was almost full. In the center of the ground were three tables and three stakes. There was a microphone on each table and on each of the three stakes. Near the stakes were three jerry cans of kerosene. On a table near the stakes was placed a bottle of acid and a matchbox. Three metal rods, round at one end and about an inch in diameter were placed on each table.

  The prisoners were brought to the stadium at about 4.30 PM. The first group consisted of three people, one young man in mid twenties, a woman in late thirties and a woman in late forties. Their charges were read out on the loudspeakers. They, the husband, his mother and his sister had poured kerosene on their daughter in law while she was working in the kitchen and set her on fire because her family did not provide adequate dowry.

  The second group consisted of three young men. Their charges were also read out by the announcer. They had abducted a teenage girl of their locality and gang raped her for four days because she had reported them to the police for eve teasing. They wanted to teach her and other girls a lesson that they would have to submit to the indignities of powerful young men in silence. Otherwise, they were to suffer the same fate.

  The third group consisted of three young men and a dismissed police officer. The young men had poured acid on the face of a girl because she had refused to marry one of them. The police officer had tried to avoid recording the FIR and had delayed arrest of the accused as they were children of powerful families and had paid bribes to have the case hushed up.

  The fourth group consisted of four elderly looking men. They were totally naked. Their heads were down and their handcuffed hands were trying to cover their private parts. They, as members of a village panchayet, had stripped a schedule cast woman of their village for having an affair with an upper cast boy.

  First, the three groups in handcuffs were taken round the stadium and then brought to the center of the ground. The group of naked men kept going around the stadium pulled by ropes around their waists. The first turn was of the third group. They were ordered to go to the stakes. They refused and sat down on the ground. All the accused began to plead for mercy. Their cries for mercy were picked up by the microphones and heard all around the stadium. The crowd watched mesmerized by the spectacle. All around the country people watched the event on their televisions in horror. The three young men and the police officer were dragged to the stakes and tied. A woman, her face horribly disfigured by acid burn marks, went to the table and picked up the acid bottle. The television cameras focused on her horrible face. Cries of terror and pleading for mercy from the men at the stakes rose to a crescendo. The girl walked up to the first person and opened the bottle. The cries continued. Wet patches appeared on the trousers of the men. The girl threw the acid at the face. The cries of terror were now joined by shrieks of pain. The act was repeated three more times. The cries of agony had now taken over. The nation watched horrified. At the end of fifteen minutes, the young men were removed form the stakes. An ambulance drove up. The shrieking men were put into the ambulance and removed to a hospital for treatment.

  There was a hushed silence. It was now the turn of the rapists. The three young men were dragged to the tables and their trousers were pulled down. They were now laid on the tables, face downwards, upper body on the table and legs vertical and securely tied. Their faces were near the microphones. Their exposed anuses quivered. Their pleas for mercy rent the air. A young girl was ushered to the tables. She was the victim. She picked up the iron rods and inserted them into the anuses. There were howls of pain. She went from table to table, inserting, withdrawing, twisting in a frenzy. The howls continued. She worked with frenzy. The cries of agony only spurred her on. She too had cried for mercy, to be spared. And the brutes had just laughed and squeezed her breasts. Now it was her turn to inflict pain and indignity. The spectacle continued for half an hour. Then a whistle blew. The girl was taken away. The rods were removed from their anuses. The men were untied from the tables. The trousers were pulled up and buttoned. They and the naked men were led away.

  The sun was about to set. The flood lights were now switched on. The last three sat cowering on the ground, wailing for mercy. The evening headed for its gory end. The three were dragged, howling and protesting to the stakes and secured. Then a man came. He was the father of the girl the three had set alight in cold blood after pouring kerosene on her. He now opened the jerry cans and poured kerosene on the three at the stakes. The pleas for mercy rose to a crescendo. The audience watched in mute horror as the victim's wails rent the evening air. The man picked up the matchbox and struck a match. The small flame flickered in the light. He tossed it on to the man. A shriek of agony and terror filled the stadium as the person caught fire. The man lit another match stick and tossed and then another. Three screaming bodies were now engulfed in the fire. This is how my daughter would have cried thought the man. He had no remorse, only hatred. Smoke billowed from the stakes. A smell of burnt flesh filled the stadium. One of the persons broke free from the stakes and ran helter skelter till she fell on the ground. But the fire was remorseless. Then one by one the screaming voices fell silent. One by one, the people in the stadium filed out in hushed silence. Their minds full of the horrifying spectacle. Some vomited. All felt sick. The bodies burnt on.

  The President watched the event on the television. So did millions of others in the country and abroad. The President was satisfied. The people knew what they could expect if they committed such barbaric crimes. He hoped that there would be no need to repeat the spectacle.

  There was wide spread condemnation of the demonstration in the media in India and abroad. Diplomatic protests were received. The western nations threatened economic sanctions. The President was severely criticized. When asked for his reactions by the media, the President said he was not impressed by the entire hullabaloo. Let the daughter of any of the human rights activists be gang raped, burned alive or stripped naked or have acid thrown on her and then he would like to hear their views on the subject. Those who committed heinous crimes will not be spared under any circumstances. Let the western nations do what they felt like. He would continue to do what he thought was right.

  The spectacle, the cries of agony remained etched on the people for a long, long time.

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