This is a small report highlighting the adverse circumstances that a rape survivor faces in the aftermath of her rape in police custody. The report is about the rape of a Dalit woman in a Narela Police Station in Delhi. In an uncommon instance in this case, the accused policemen were promptly dismissed and cases registered against them but it is the disappearance of the victim afterwards that is the focal point of the report. The report shows how larger societal norms are stacked against the rape survivors. In this case, the fact that the rape victim had married another man while her first husband was still alive is seen as a tacit signal for inviting sexual assault on her. Officially the police accepted that her marital status was irrelevant to the rape case but unofficially they find faults with her character. So, the report shows how the past of a rape victim decides the chances of her getting rather than not getting justice in sexual assault cases!
To download the report, click below:
A Rape in Custody (आगामी अतीत): Sexual History and Criminal Justice, Narela Police Station
