The Karnataka High Court refused to grant bail to a person accused in the rape case, citing a shloka of Manusmriti and Mahatma Gandhi, related to respect for women.
This case is related to a girl from Banka in Bihar, who comes from the Scheduled Tribes. Her parents are working in a cardamom plantation in Kerala. The woman reached KR Puram railway station in Bangalore from Kerala at around 1.30 pm on April 1.
According to the prosecution, she was going with her brother towards Mahadevanagar for food when two people allegedly surrounded her near the station. The prosecution said that the accused stopped the girl’s brother there, while her partner dragged the girl to a place nearby and raped her.
On the screaming of the woman, the local people intervened and the alleged rapist was caught and handed over to the police. Justice S. Rachaiya, while giving the verdict on the bail plea on September 4, underlined the seriousness of the incident and the shock suffered by the victim, saying, “The act, which was done by the accused with another person, will be a stigma in the life of the victim. It will be very difficult for him to overcome this pain.
During the hearing, the bench cited a verse of Manusmriti, ‘Yatra Narayastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devta, Yatraitastu na Pujyantte Sarvastatrafala: Kriya:’ which means that where women are respected, there is residence of the gods, but where they are disrespectful, all the works are fruitless. Justice Rachiya also recalled Gandhi’s words, ‘The day a woman will be able to walk freely on the road at night, we can say that India has achieved freedom.’