Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

Amend the laws

Sir, — After the horrendous rape of a 12-year-old mentally challenged girl in a Mumbai local train in full view of five witnesses, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Evidence Act must be amended. According to existing law, if the woman does not resist a single rapist, the courts presume that she was a consenting party. Henceforth, the courts must not make this inference. If five grown men do not dare intervene, how do we expect a lone woman to resist?

The five men are abettors in the eyes of the law. Even if they escaped the law, they still have to answer their conscience, presuming they have one.

Vasudha Dhagamwar,
New Delhi

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