Rape is a very serious crime as it traumatizes the victim and also affects their social life. In India, rape is a crime that is taken very seriously by the authorities and many measures have been taken to ensure justice to rape victims. It is important that these measures are not misused by people for their gain. People usually do not question the woman blaming the man for rape and sympathize with her. A person who is accused of rape loses his reputation and standing in society much before he is convicted in India. There have been a lot of fake rape cases in India recently. According to NCRB reports, there were 28,046 registered cases of rape in 2020. Of these, 3375 cases were dismissed by police as being false, while 5015 cases in total were dismissed by police due to being false, factual, or legal errors, or civil disputes. If a person is falsely accused of rape, they lose their reputation and in many cases their job before getting acquitted. Though there are provisions in the law that punish a person for filing a fake case, it is bailable and it does not provide proper compensation for the accused. Though rape is a heinous offense, the present laws are being used as a tool to hurt men. The existing laws enabling this should be improved and provisions against fake cases should be made more stringent to ensure that in order to get the victims of rape justice, innocent people should not get punished.
One such reason is "Pseudologia phantastica," a psychological condition in which a woman deludes herself into thinking that she has been raped or sexually abused even if it never happened. Though there is no prominent example of such a case in India, it is an important reason established by scientists. This is an example of a situation when a false accusation is made unintentionally due to psychological issues.
Women intentionally make false accusations for many reasons such as revenge, to gain sympathy, to provide an alibi, to blackmail someone, or because they were under pressure to do so. A clear example of blackmail would be the case of Sejal Sharma vs State of Haryana. In this case, a man was asked to pay an amount of 20 lakhs by blackmailing that they will lodge a fake rape case against him if he fails to pay. They had a video of him with a girl and blackmailed him with it. When the case was presented before the court and required investigations were completed, the judge concluded that the petitioners have been operating a racket and were accustomed to threatening & blackmail others by accusing them of fake rape accusations. This shows how rape accusations are used as a tool by people to get what they want.
Another reason for such cases is parents finding out about consensual sexual relations with their daughters and reporting it as rape. The research of Shrinivasan into the 460 rape cases in a trial in New Delhi in 2013 revealed that “more than one-third turned out to be cases of couples having consensual sex outside marriage but, when the parents found out, they went to the police to end the relationship.” Since women and their families are usually blindly trusted on this matter, people often misuse this for their personal gain. Hence, there needs to be a law that checks this and ensures that no injustice occurs to men due to actions taken for the benefit of women.
When a person is wrongfully charged with rape, society accepts him to be a rapist very easily and this might impact his mental health. Sometimes, they also end up in prison until the case is decided. They might end up blaming themselves or the entire society for this and fall into depression. Even if a person that is wrongly charged does not wind up in prison, the ramifications of being falsely accused might have a tremendous influence on someone’s life. In most circumstances someone’s mental health and self-esteem decline. This might cause depression to most people falsely accused. Furthermore, research demonstrates that being wrongly accused might constitute an attack on someone’s personal integrity with emotional harm as a consequence. They also risk developing PTSD or a burn-out. Post-traumatic stress Disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that occurs after a person has encountered a scary, alarming, horrifying, or hazardous incident. These stressful or traumatic situations frequently involve a circumstance where someone’s life has been threatened or significant injury has happened. PTSD affects the personal and professional life of people in significant ways. In the same way, if a person develops burnout, they will have concerns in both their professional and personal lives. Hence, the mental impacts of wrongfully accusing someone of rape are huge and affect other aspects besides the health of their life too.
In Indian society, a person accused of rape faces the scorn of society. Usually, people start avoiding them or feel disgusted by them or simply feel unsafe around them. Though this might be an appropriate response for real perpetrators, it worsens the state of people falsely accused of rape. People usually fear defamation in society more than jail time while getting blackmailed. This also sometimes leads the accused to lose their jobs. Also, as in the case of Rahul, they are no longer eligible for government jobs, and also corporations and offices usually don’t take people with such an accusation. Hence, there is also a risk of financial loss to them. Sometimes, family and friends of the accused also do not believe that the accused is innocent. This causes further emotional turmoil to the accused. An example of this would be the incident where a woman accused her ex-boyfriend of rape because he refused to marry her. One week after he was accused, his mother died of a heart attack and his fiancé broke their marriage. This is not an isolated incident as many people that are falsely accused end up losing family or friends. Thus, false accusations of rape not only affect their mental health but also adversely affect their social life, personal relationships, and financial situations of the accused.
False rape accusations have often led to suicides in India. An example of this would be Deepak Sangwan, a 41-year-old differently-abled man who allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself in the neck and left behind a suicide note claiming that a woman had lodged a false rape case against him. She and her father owed him 2 lakh Rs and when he complained about their bounced cheque, she filed a rape case against him. This is a clear and very recent case of suicide due to a false rape accusation. Though it has not been proven yet, the suicide note makes it clear that the false accusation of rape is the cause of suicide. Another such example would be the case of Rahul, an aspiring athlete. He committed suicide after being accused of rape. In his suicide note, he mentioned how the parents of his female friend falsely accused him of rape due to which he had to spend almost 19 months in jail, and how he was no longer eligible for a government job. He has also mentioned how he has gotten depression because of this. His father also alleged that her parents blackmailed them for money. Though this case also has not been proven yet, it can be said that this is also a case of suicide due to a false accusation of rape based on a suicide note. All this show how mental health impacts like depression and social life impacts like losing a job or false accusations of rape can trigger suicides among the accused.
Even if not famous, there are remedies for filing fake cases in law. One such section is Section 211 of the Indian Penal Code. This is not a section specific to fake rape cases. Recently, a Delhi court judge ordered police to file FIR against the woman who filed fake charges of gang rape and other offenses against her husband and his family. It deals with a “False charge of offense made with intent to injure”. For this section to apply, the intention to injure is necessary. The maximum sentence under this section is imprisonment for up to 7 years along with a fine. Since rape is an offense punishable with rigorous imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life, a false charge of rape made with the intention to injure is punishable with imprisonment ranging to 7 years along with a fine. When compared to the consequences of making a fake rape charge, the punishment is highly inadequate. The maximum sentence for making a false charge of rape is less than the minimum punishment for rape. Also, it only covers false charges made with the intention to injure. So, the cases because of Pseudologia Phantastica, or cases filed under pressure from someone are not covered in this section. Also, since it is a bailable offense, it is not considered a serious offense. Hence, this section is not broad enough for providing a deterrent against fake rape charges.
Another such section is section 182 of the Indian Penal Code, which is also not specific to fake rape charges. It deals with giving “False information, with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person.” This covers the cases in which a person gives a public servant, in our case mostly the police, false information about rape so that the accused gets arrested or faces some injury. This section does not require an actual case or FIR to be filed. Just consulting any public officer would be enough. The punishment as per this section is 6 months. When compared to the consequences of making a fake rape charge, the punishment is highly inadequate.
One of the main remedies which people can adopt is not treating the accused as guilty until he is convicted. This comes under the Latin maxim Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat. This would put an end to the consequences faced by the falsely accused before their acquittal. The main opposition to this is the claim that false accusations are rarer than actual rapes. Also, this treatment might enable actual rapists to commit more rapes. But this is not the case. According to NCRB data, in 2014, about 47% of all rape cases filed in Delhi were false. There have been multiple such cases and people also get blackmailed due to these accusations, so it is a matter of concern for the present situation. The following table represents some examples of the cases:
Name Case details Outcome Rahul (Athlete) Accused of rape by his female friend’s parents. Spent 19 months in jail. Committed suicide due to depression and false accusations. Deepak Sangwan Accused of rape by a woman who owed him money. Committed suicide. Shafiq Sheikh False charges by his daughter-in-law. Acquitted by court, after spending time in jail. Ramesh Solanki Filed a fake case of rape against her neighbor over a property dispute. Acquitted by court, woman fined. Sejal Sharma vs State of Haryana Man blackmailed for 20 lakhs with a false rape accusation. Acquitted, court recognized the blackmail racket.
The table shows how people can be accused of fake rape charges and blackmailed. Hence, it would be beneficial to treat a person as innocent until proven guilty in rape cases as people can misuse the laws for their gain.
Another remedy for these would be a specific and stringent punishment for people blackmailing with fake rape accusations. In the previously mentioned case of Sejal Sharma vs State of Haryana, the court observed that the woman and her friends were operating a racket. There are multiple cases of blackmail and there are no stringent punishments to prevent this. If the law is updated to include a proper and specific provision against blackmailing people with fake rape charges, it will stop this racket and ensure that the laws that provide justice to women do not become a means to hurt men. There can be severe punishments like a minimum of 10 years of imprisonment for the people involved in blackmail and also, there should be provisions for the payment of compensation for the people accused of rape as per their social status and the period of the case and the period they had to spend in jail. This will provide justice to the people wrongfully accused and also stop the people from misusing the laws for their benefit.
Leave a comment