False rape cases: Infringement of Male Fundamental Rights

Written By: Naveen Talawar

Introduction

According to Sir Matthew Hale’s seventeenth-century opinion rape ‘‘is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved, and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent’’, and the suspicion of rape complainants that this view represents has figured prominently in the legal response to rape.

Rape is a heinous crime and in a country like ours it happens all too often and with every third woman, and it also has some serious consequences. It is legally defined under section 375 of the Indian penal code and the punishment has been provided under section 376. A major amendment in the rape laws took place in 2013 after the infamous Nirbhaya Rape case which shook the whole of India, after this incident the number of rape cases were reported to police in India rose sharply but a survey conducted has shown that more than half of the cases which were reported are false. False rape charges have probably been in existence as long as the concept of rape came into existence.

Minor daughter falsely accused her father of rape, the woman accused a neighbor of raping her daughter, a woman falsely accused two men of gang rape and brother-in-law accused of raping daughter to settle property dispute, etc., such stories are now available at the very click of the mouse from almost every corner of India. In Indian society, the false cases of rape and sexual abuse are a dark reality that devastates the falsely accused man’s soul, breaks his self-respect, and for many purges the hope to live.

What is a false allegation?

There is no explicit definition as to what constitutes a false allegation, the international association of chiefs of police has defined it as “The determination that a report is false must be supported by evidence that the assault did not happen”.

According to Wall and Tarczon, “an accusation is false when an individual gives intentionally or unintentionally an inaccurate version of the sexual abuse.”

According to Saunders (2012) “a false accusation as An accusation containing falsehoods: a generic, all-encompassing definition capable of incorporating both the sexual abuse that did not happen (the false complaint) and the sexual abuse that did not happen the way the complainant said it did (the false account).

Reasons for false accusation

There are many reasons, majority of them tend to be personal :

The lust for money.
Taking revenge to retaliate against a disliked person by accusing him and causing damage to his reputation etc.
Gaining sympathy, which involves getting social recognition, and using victimization as an explanation for own problems.

Consequences/sufferings of accused of false accusation

Just like a rape victim faces shame and stigma in society, the rape accused could also face some stigma. In a study in which judges were interviewed on the matter of cases of sexual assault one of the judges said he found “It is unimaginable that a young girl in Indian society would concoct an untruthful story and level charges of rape for blackmail, animosity or revenge”

A trial court described the sufferings of the accused of false rape charges even after acquittal in the following words: “Can the lost honor and dignity of the poor old accused be restored? And in another case, a trial judge observed that “These ‘victims’ of false rape cases cannot be forgotten. A false allegation of rape creates havoc in the life of the accused. His whole future is shattered, his family faces isolation & ridicule and his life is destroyed”.

In Raju v. State of Madhya Pradesh, the Supreme Court stated that “It cannot be lost sight of that rape causes the greatest distress and humiliation to the victim but at the same time, a false allegation of rape can cause equal distress, humiliation, and damage to the accused as well.

Very recently in 2021, with the raising of the false rape cases in India, the Delhi high court observed that “False allegations of rape have the potential to destroy the life and career of the accused. The accused in a false case of rape loses his honor, cannot face his family, and is stigmatized for life’

Instances

Vishnu Tiwari case: Vishnu Tiwari, of Uttar Pradesh spent 20 years in jail over a rape case before being pronounced innocent. A sexual assault case was filed against him stating that he had beaten and raped the woman while she was 5 months pregnant. In 2005 his case was set aside for lack of poor documentation, 16 years later this case was taken by the Allahabad high court and found him innocent of all charges and acquitted him, but the man had already lost 20 years of his life which he never deserved.
Chennai false rape case: In 2010 an engineering student was accused of rape by a woman and her family, they claimed that the guy had impregnated their daughter and refused to marry her based on this claim the court kept the man in custody for 95 days until he could get bail. But after the examination of DNA, it was proved that the man was not to blame, and he was acquitted by the court and awarded 15 lakhs as compensation.
Minor daughter falsely accused her father of rape: In 2017, a girl provoked by her maternal uncle accused her father of raping her, the father was arrested and he was spent around 3 years in jail for a crime which he never committed, later on, the daughter accepted that she had filed a false complaint on the insistence of her uncle. As a result of this, her uncle was sentenced to 1 month along with a fine of Rs. 50,000.
In another incident, a woman accused her neighbor of raping her daughter at night in Ghaziabad. During the court proceedings, it was found that the allegations made against the man were false and that there was no evidence against him, the woman was fined Rs. 20,000 and it was also observed that if she failed to pay the amount she would be imprisoned for 15 days.
In 2019, a woman accused 2 men of gang-raping her under the pretext of promising her a job. however, upon investigation, it was found that the woman has filed a bogus case to tarnish the reputation of the men.
In January 2021, a 19-year-old girl accused 5 men of kidnapping, gang-raping, and stabbing her, however after the investigation was made it was found that the teenager’s claims were not only inconsistent but also baseless.

Violation of fundamental rights

The fundamental rights are the basic human rights that have been provided under part III of the Indian constitution and they have to be applied without discrimination based on race, religion, gender, etc. when we talk about false cases of rape, certain fundamental rights of the accused get violated.

Article 14 of the constitution states equality before the law and equal protection of laws. It stands against discrimination and prohibits both discriminatory laws and administrative action. In almost all the false cases of rape, it is generally biased arriving out of the pre-conceived notion that the Man by nature is violent, evil, and dominant. So he must have committed the crime. Judging the alleged perpetrator by believing the reports of the media, public opinion often unconsciously leads a judge to create an unconscious bias in his mind. Therefore, the evils of bias have the power to vitiate a fair trial.
Article 21 of the constitution that provides for the right to life and personal liberty gets violated. The right to life which includes the right to live with dignity in a civilized society gets violated. Society throws disgust and humiliation against the accused which shatters his dignity. And when it comes to liberty, the accused is deprived of his liberty, from the initial stage of being standing as an accused in the accused box till the delivery of judgment.

Conclusion

It becomes difficult to believe in the truth, when the very laws which are made to protect women are being misused by them, as a result of this the basic human rights of the falsely accused person are jeopardized, the innocent victims suffer at the hands of justice. The phrase “justice delayed is justice denied!” becomes a reality in fake rape cases when the victim suffers for years facing the false accusation trial.

REFERENCES :

Naveen Talawar

Student at Karnataka State Law University’s Law School

BA.LLB(H)

4th Year

Previous Posts

Introduction

What is a false allegation?

Reasons for false accusation

Consequences/sufferings of accused of false accusation

Instances

Violation of fundamental rights

Conclusion

Naveen Talawar

Related

You Might Also Like

Trial by Media: A Legal Perspective

Factory Act 1948 for Health, Safety, and Welfare of the workers

Judicial Review of Administrative Action and Grounds of Judicial Review