Following the brutal gang rape and murder of eight year-old girl Asifa Bano, an image has been circulating on Facebook regarding a ‘Section 233’ of the Indian penal code.
The image states that a new law has been passed by the Indian government. It reads, “if a girl is suspected to be raped or getting raped, then she has the supreme right to kill the man, injure his sexual part of harm that person as dangerously and girl won’t be blamed for murder”.
While this is indeed fake news, there are many who are in favour for this after the disgusting cruelties that Asifa had to endure.
While there is a push for the death penalty for Asifa’s captors, many feel that this is an inadequate punishment, not proportionate to the crimes committed. The Facebook image above is one of the small ways in which the backlash can be felt.
As reported by the Indian news, after religious and political conflict over land, Asifa was kidnapped in an attempt to drive her family out of the land.
According to police reports, Asifa was drugged, held captive in a temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered to death with a stone. Ironically, out of the six men arrested, four were police officers.
There is another vein that branches out from Asifa’s case – a religious one. Because she was a Muslim girl and her perpetrators were mostly Hindus, many have started blaming religion. However, it is to note that the issue at hand is with a child. A small child had unspeakable cruelties done to her, and instead of focusing on that, people should not pass the blame to religion.
obbana@theindependent.sg