Men facing rape allegations often get away, securing acquittal in a rape case from a court, thanks to a section of the century-old evidence act.
Section 155(4) of the Evidence Act 1872 says: “When a man is prosecuted for rape or an attempt to ravish, it may be shown that the prosecutrix [the victim] was of generally immoral character.” The word “prosecutirx” means “a female victim of a crime on whose behalf the state is prosecuting a suspect.”
Rights activists say considering our social norms, if it can be proved that a rape victim is sexually active with the accused or multiple partners, it is also proved that the victim is “immoral” and the rape charge gets lighter.
They say around 75% of the alleged rapists get acquitted by presenting evidence under section 155(4) of the Evidence Act.
They say there is, in fact, no example where a rape allegation was taken into account once it was proved that the victim had prior physical relation with the accused.
Sumi (not her real name), 13, from Charbhadrashon of Faridpur district was allegedly abducted and raped for about a month by a gang of seven men. She was recovered from a jute field adjacent to her village home a month after the abduction.
Her family filed a case under the Women and Children Repression (Prevention) Act 2000. Ten days after she was rescued, a doctor filed a report that said there was no sign of forced sexual intercourse; she was used to having sexual intercourse; and she was 17 years old.
By virtue of that medical report as evidence, five of the seven accused got their names dropped from the charge sheet and two others got acquitted. Citing section 155(4) of the Evidence Act 1872, the defence proved that there was an affair between the victim and one of the accused. They also managed to prove that the girl was “immoral” because she had affair with another man.
The first section of the act says it extends to the whole of Bangladesh and applies to all judicial proceedings in or before any court.
Statistics from women’s rights watchdog Jatiyo Mohila Parishad show that a total of 431 rapes have taken place in the country in the first six months of this year, of which 82 were gang rapes and 45 were cases of murder after rape.
According to the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), at least 600 women were raped in 2011; in 2012, the number was more than 800.
BNWLA Executive Director Salma Ali said: “Application of laws is poor in our country, That is why loopholes help free the accused...The evidence act tells us to focus on the expression ‘purity of women,’ which does not have anything to do in case of violence.”
She claimed that nearly 75% of rape cases never end up in conviction for the accused because of this act.
Mir Fatama Suvra, a teacher of anthropology at Jagannath University, has been doing a research on behalf of a non-government organisation, working on finding loopholes in rape cases.
She told the Dhaka Tribune: “If section 155[4] is not removed, we may live with the wrong perception that ‘immoral women’ can never be raped. This section allows one to save himself by proving the victim immoral.”
In 2003, India took an initiative to amend the corresponding section 146(3) of its evidence act on the ground that no one should be allowed to question the character of a rape victim.
More recently, the Supreme Court of India included in a verdict that the statement of a rape victim would be sufficient to punish an accused.
