Bengal govt steps up heat on molesters

KOLKATA: A foreigner who had come on a visit to Kolkata was molested on Mayo Road in 2006. The conviction was a fine of a mere Rs 1,000. Six years later, not much has changed with regards to the punishment meted out to molesters. The accused if convicted has to either cough up a paltry fine and/or go behind the bars for a maximum period of two years.
In order to impose a more stringent punishment on molesters, the Mamata Banerjee government now wants “some cases of molestation” to be classified as non-bailable crime and the punishment to be imprisonment of three to seven years.
Cases of molestation have become quite common in the city. In April this year, the city police had registered 40 molestation cases, 44 in May and yet another 34 in June. Similar numbers were also reported in July and August, though the exact figures are not available. However, in most of these cases the offenders roamed scot free, thanks to the lenient sentence.
According to Section 354 of IPC, which is ‘assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty’, “Whoever assaults or uses criminal force to any woman, intending to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”
State law minister Moloy Ghatak said on Sunday that the state government was working on this section of the IPC to classify different categories of molestation and punishment will vary according to the cases. “Molestation includes a whole range of crime. If punishment under Section 354 is simply made harsh without fixing categories then there will be scope of misusing it just like 498A,” Ghatak said. “We would thus like the offence to be categorized according to the severity, and punishment to be different for different categories,” the minister added.
The state government has in fact begun work on Section 354 after being prodded by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC). Commission chairperson Ashok Ganguly had earlier observed that violence against women had increased alarmingly in West Bengal. Following in the footsteps of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, the offence must be made non-bailable and punishment ought to be up to seven years’ imprisonment in West Bengal as well, the WBHRC had observed.
This is not, however, not the first time that IPC 354 is being examined. In 2008, such a proposal had gone to the state from Kolkata Police authorities. However, the matter took a bizarre turn later that year when the state raised the question of how to define “modesty”. The issue later took a backseat.
The move by the Trinamool Congress government has received mixed reactions from different quarters. While Sunanda Mukherjee, chairperson of the West Bengal Commission for Women, felt this will rightly give justice to victims, Bharati Mutsuddi, lawyer and former member of the state commission for women, said molestation couldn’t be categorized.
“I don’t think such categorization will help. It will only go in favour of the accused as the attempt is always to make the crime appear lighter than it is. Also, in the court, it would be difficult to prove the different categories,” she said.