The sentencing of Janata Dal (Secular) leader and former Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna to life in prison for the repeated rape of a maid has infused confidence in the average citizen that justice can be done where the executive acts with determination to bring the high and mighty to book. Hearteningly, the trial that began just a year ago proceeded without delays in spite of attempts by the accused to erect procedural obstructions, culminating in the Special Court delivering a guilty verdict. Prajwal Revanna ludicrously sought a lenient sentence on the ground that he had to care for his grandfather, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, and his parents, including his MLA father. Credit must go to the police, who went beyond credible witness accounts to build an iron-clad case using forensic evidence, such as images of the farmhouse, the scene of the crime, to prove ownership, and DNA profiles. Trial court judge Santosh Gajanan Bhat’s description of the case as a David and Goliath battle sums it up accurately, and his decision to award the influential accused a life sentence under Section 376 of the IPC, after the finding of repeated rape by someone in a position of dominance, is commendable. It is noteworthy that this verdict concerns only one of the victims, and cases relating to four others are pending. The shadow of political power clearly intimidated many victims. In the initial days, as the rape scandal exploded in the public domain through widely circulated videos of the attacks, a special investigation team estimated that there were nearly 70 victims, but only a few decided to file charges.
Although the trial court has established the majesty of law, and the evidence amassed before the court helped it come to a conclusion, there is a long legal road ahead where there are bound to be challenges to the verdict. It is instructive to see how governments treat influential cases that have reached a logical conclusion in rape and other violent crimes. In the Bilkis Bano case, the Supreme Court had to step in and set aside the shocking remission granted by the Gujarat government to those held guilty of rape and murder. In the Asaram Bapu case, the individual serving a life sentence for rape was able to get temporary bail for a few months, while Gurmeet Ram Rahim, the leader of a social group also in jail for rape, secured repeated parole. In fact, Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan noted in their order on the Bilkis Bano case that if the convicts could circumvent the consequences of their conviction, peace and tranquillity in society would be reduced to a chimera. The Prajwal Revanna case will now be closely followed to see if it actually represents a legal watershed in this uneven legal landscape.
