I was reading an article on Yahoo relating to the Delhi Rape case, and I am was really shocked at some of the comments passed by the lawyer of the accused. Here is the complete article:
“”The five persons accused of gang-raping and killing of a 23-year-old Delhi girl in a moving bus have got lawyers to defend them.
All the accused also assaulted her 28-year-old male friend. Both were thrown out of the bus after around 40 minutes, battered, naked, bleeding and shivering. The lady’s friend will be the main witness in the case.
Meanwhile, a lawyer who volunteered to defend one of the six accused, Mukesh, brother of the main accused Ram Singh, said the victim and her friend were responsible for the assault.
Manohar Lal Sharma, a 56-year-old Supreme Court advocate, said the victim’s friend was responsible for the attack as the couple should not have ventured out on the streets at night.
He further went on to say that he never heard of a respectable woman being raped in the country.
Speaking to The Independent, Manohar said: ‘I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady. Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect.’
Blaming the victim’s friend, Manohar told The New York Times: ‘This all happened because of the lust of the boy. This is the boy who should be hanged. He’s responsible for everything. He should be punished.’
In an interview with Bloomberg, Manohar was quoted saying that he was ‘confident that the men will be proved innocent because there are a number of problems with the police investigation.’
“We will plead not guilty. We want this to go to trial,” Manohar told Reuters.
“We are only hearing what the police are saying. This is manipulated evidence. It’s all on the basis of hearsay and presumption.”
Manohar said the police had rushed through the investigation against the five men even when they were not ready with the key detail of the age of the sixth member of the group, who lured the woman and a male friend into the bus and, according to leaked accounts, was the most brutal in the attack.
“When you have not even established the age of this person, how can you go to court bringing the charges against the others, and say your investigations are complete,” Sharma said.
“We all know how police investigations are carried out in India.”
Manohar also accused that Mukesh was being brutality tortured in police custody.
Sharma said police had sexually assaulted his client with a stick and humiliated him. “They urinated in his mouth, they did all kinds of things to him. He is facing the same torture now from the jail inmates,” he said.
Lawyer VK Anand is representing the main accused Ram Singh, ML Sharma is defending Mukesh, AP Singh is representing Akshay alias Thakur and Vinay Sharma, while the fifth accused Pawan Gupta will be represented by counsel Vivek Sharma.
The sixth accused is a juvenile and his case is being heard by a Juvenile Justice Board.
The police have charged the five under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 376 (2)(g) (gang-rape), 377 (unnatural offences), 395 (dacoity), 396 (murder in dacoity), 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to secretly or wrongfully confine a person), 394 (hurting in dacoity), 201 (destruction of evidence), 120B (conspiracy), 34 (common intention), 412 (dishonestly receiving stolen property), and 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.”
I really don’t understand how can an advocate pass such comments. I am fine with him pointing the flaws in the system, and the process that are followed in the investigations done by police department. Even his raising the points of the accused being tortured in the prison during investigation are valid to be raised (though one would say that these guys deserved for what they did) as these accused are not declared guilty by court as yet, and if we want/expect the overall system to be good, then we need the judgement to come out from the judge and whatever punishment is given, must be carried out.
But how on earth did he get the courage, the brains to speak a comment like “never heard of a respectable woman being raped“. I don’t know what exactly was thinking of when he spoke these words. These words are probably trying to disgrace the entire womankind. And this coming from an advocate, who must have said that in front of a judge in a courtroom, is actually a disgrace for the entire nation. I know he has to do a very tough job of defending these accused, but still how can one actually come up with such a statement. I know we have the right and freedom to speak, but we cannot really pass such comments. I would request Mr. Manohar Lal Sharma to please appologise for your statement in public if you do not want a public outrage against you. All I can say to Mr. Sharma is that the people whom you are defending have done an unpardonable crime, but even you are not much behind by giving such a statement.
And by saying another of his statement where he was asking the victim’s friend to be hanged, he has surely cracked the joke of the year, and probably even of the century. I must say this person is pretty humrous in nature. I don’t know why is he wasting his talent in courtrooms, he should appear in laughter shows on television. I am sure he would have more such humrous one-liners to speak.
I am really disappointed by reading that article, and that is why I had to write about it here. And my disappointment was more because, I too was in favour of a court trial to take place as these accused had the right to face the trial, defend themselves. In fact initally when I got to know of advocates coming ahead to defend them, I really admired the people for doing what was correct for the judicial system as a whole. But with such comments I am left shocked. All I can say is that I have always been proud of our country’s pledge all along where we said “All Indians are my brothers and sisters”, and today I am disgusted saying this line again thinking of these accused and largely thinking of you. Those people attacked just one girl, you have attacked all the women of the country. If I have to put it in your own words, you are the more “respectable” person than the accused, and this is what was not expected from you. All we expected from you was to fight for these accused with dignity, and not by getting down to their level.
I really don’t know if this is another of those cases that will go on and on, and Mr. Sharma has really done well in extending the case so far, but I don’t mind (though I would really be unhappy), if he can delay the judgement by coming out with good points in defence, but all I can hope is that he fights the case with a lot more social sensibility.
TREATISE 