Is India becoming the ‘sextortion capital’ of the world?

India is a civilisational state. The biggest sign of any civilisation is that it devises specific mechanism to protect its women and children. The state remains stable when these mechanisms are not subject to misuse by the protected class. But, reverse is happening in today’s India. Due to incessant misuse of women centric laws, the country is on the verge of becoming a ‘sextortion’ capital of the world.

Mumbai Police new directive on POCSO

Recently, Mumbai Police passed a controversial order. According to new official instruction by Sanjay Pandey, Mumbai Police Commissioner, no new cases under POCSO act will be registered until it has been recommended by ACP rank Police officer and permitted by DCP rank officer. According to an official quoted by Times of India, POCSO Act had become a tool to settle personal scores.

The Directive issued stressed on the fact that in lot of cases related to POCSO, the accused is not even availed of basic legal process. The individual is arrested on the word of mouth of the accuser. Most of the time, even facts are not verified. It is true that later the accused turn out to be innocent but a man’s social reputation (in most of the cases, accused are men) takes a nosedive, which is impossible to resurrect in future.

POCSO is hardly the only law subject to misuse

However, POCSO is not the only law which is subject to rampant misuse. For all the propagandist defamation around India being the rape capital of the world, on ground level the country is turning out to be sextortion capital of the world. Senior IAS officer Yashasvi Yadav recently wrote an elaborative column on it. He stated that in states like Haryana and Rajasthan, which are defamed for being anti-women, women themselves are not respecting their dignity. They honey trap men and then extort money from them by threatening them of rape charges. Serial rape accuser Ayushi Bhatia is the most high-profile name of the sextortion racket.

Arnaaz Hathiram, founder of ‘Voice for men’ fighting for men’s right in India and one of the few to provide freedom of expression to men opines, “Post the horrific Nirbhaya gang rape incident in 2012, rape laws were tightened even further and due to immense pressure, the laws armed women to file FIR anywhere anytime and the accused Men would be booked on a mere complaint, no medical required either. The laws which were made to protect and aid genuine victims of this disgraceful crime have been sadly turned into a weapon today by many women (& men) to fix or trap innocent men. The revenge could manifest from several reasons: it could be an ex-boyfriend marrying someone else, to a family property dispute, or even car parking fights that take place in societies.”

Read more: “Rape should be considered a gender-neutral offence.” Kerala High Court on Sexual Assault

The false accusers have permeated every sphere

In her years’ long experience, Arnaaz has found that even the modern day white collar corporate world is not spared either. In the Corporate arena, the misuse of these laws often takes place when women are not provided with favourable outcome such as promotion, or they are put on PIP (Performance Improvement Plans). The situation in entertainment industry is worse. For all the talks about casting couch, the situation is reversing and corrosive #MeToo has been misused by women when they are not signed up for the movie.

Read more: Mahima Kukreja, the woman whose story started the MeToo movement in India turns out to be a fake

Even tier-2 and tier-3 cities are not left behind. As the NGOs are making them aware about the lopsided laws, people are resorting to use them as a tool to get more money. Rape laws coupled with the draconian SC/ST act has become atrocious for innocent men of the society. 80 percent of the men charged for raping a SC/ST woman are found innocent. Actually, in many states, government provides compensation to women for just claiming that they belong to SC/ST community and have been raped by an individual from other community. In Madhya Pradesh, the compensation amount is Rs 3 lakh. As soon as the women receive money in their accounts, they turn away from their accusations.

A huge racket also runs deep in society today, where well educated women are dating Men or having flings mutually with consent, and then blackmailing them for money, if and when the men do not agree to marriage.

Courts are living in an idealistic world

While this is happening on the ground, our courts are happily quashing Rape FIRs after parties are approaching them post ‘settlement’ (often monetary). One must read the recent Delhi High Court order that permitted a woman to quash rape FIR against her Father-in-Law after he paid Rs 10 lakh as final settlement.

All the victims must get justice, but no innocent person must be arrested without investigation either. Even single rape is a blot on society, however, this offence is so grave, that we often pass off innocent men as ‘collateral damage’ even if cases filed against them is concluded to be false.

Every country is known for its laws and how they are amended with moving times. It’s time the Modi government acts strongly against such corrupt, immoral and absolutely lopsided practices in society.

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