Complainant had deposed in the Court that a Counselor from Women Commission had given her wrong advice at the Police Station to make false allegations against the Accused so as to rope him in a case of Rape.

Additional Sessions Judge Arun Grover Baliga gave the advice to the women’s rights body when an alleged rape victim in her deposition before the court said that “she had mentioned the allegations of rape in her complaint [to the police] only on the advice of the NGO counselor at Sarojini Nagar police station”.

While acquitting an accused in a rape case some time ago, a Court here had suggested that the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) adequately train its counselors posted at police stations to provide support to rape victims and not to advise them to lodge false rape cases.

“Before parting with this case, this Court finds it necessary to direct that a copy of this judgment be sent to the DCW to bring to its notice the conduct of the counselor at the police station. This court has no doubt in its mind that the statement made by the prosecutrix today [on Friday] on oath that she had made allegations of rape in her complaint only on the advice of the counselor present at the police station, is true & correct,” the judge said.

Duty of Counselors

“This court, therefore, feels it necessary to request the DCW to properly train its counselors appointed at the police stations and remind them that their duty is to provide support to the victims of sexual assault, & not to advise them to make false allegations of rape,” the judge added.

Also, the judge further said, “This court has found the prosecutrix to be a very credible witness because she honestly narrated the entire facts in her deposition & did not make any efforts to conceal the fact that it was the attitude of her own grandfather which caused problems in the finalisation of her marriage with the accused. She has also very forthrightly admitted that she was never fraudulently induced by the accused to have sexual relations.”

“In the considered opinion of this court, had the counselor at the police station not given wrong advice to the prosecutrix to make false allegations against the accused only to rope him in a case of rape, the accused would not have had to spend 22 days in judicial custody & perhaps the parties may have amicably settled their disputes,” said the judge.

The allegations against the accused stated that he had sexually assaulted the victim several times on the pretext of marrying her.

Data bares the truth and the plight

Between 2001 & 2012, the number of reported rape cases rose from 16,075 to 24,923, however the conviction rate fell from 40.8 percent to 24.2 percent.

Some men's rights activists point to the low conviction rates & claim that the lack of a penalty for falsely reporting rape has encouraged false cases.

However, compared with other countries like Sweden, UK & France, India has a much higher conviction rate.

Men being pushed to Suicide

Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF) has claimed that the suicide rate of married men is almost twice that of women, due to them being "unable to withstand verbal, emotional, economic & physical abuse" from their wives.

SIFF has pointed to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to show that suicide in married men is much higher than in married women. Kumar V.

Jahgirdar, president of Child Rights Initiative for Shared Parenting (CRISP), has attributed the suicides among married men on family stress.

Mithun Kumar, a researcher at SIFF, has said that police don't take any action even if the suicide note of a man states that he was tortured by his wife & in-laws, but in case of a woman's suicide her husband's family is taken into custody without investigation.

The frequency of domestic violence against men has increased in recent years, and that many cases go unreported as men feel too ashamed to report abuse, or fear false accusations against them in reprisal.

According to latest report Indian married men twice as likely to commit suicide.

Misuse of POSH Act, 2013

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 is NOT gender neutral & applies to the protection of women only.

Rajesh Vakahria, a member of SIFF, has pointed out the bill was originally gender neutral until Ministry of Women & Child Development and some NGOs intervened & changed the name. He said that it was an outdated concept to consider that only women suffer from sexual harassment.

Evidently the Rape reporting laws & sexual harassment laws in India are unfair to men.

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