Delhi High Court Grants Bail To Rape Accused Because The Victim Has His Name Tattooed On Her Arm. So Consent Doesn’t Matter?
Merriam Webster dictionary defines rape as an unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will. Although, what it fails to mention is how rape is much more than just forced sexual penetration. It is a traumatic moment, which mostly leaves the victim numb or frozen in the state of fear, agony and pain. It is an experience which also incapacitates the victim for the time being, as their body is being violated. A state that the Delhi High Court has recently underestimated, as it granted bail to a man accused of rape, stating that his name was tattooed on the complainant’s forearm.
Limiting rape to a simple definition of forced sexual intercourse, Delhi High Court’s recent ruling where it granted bail to a man accused of rape, stating that victim couldn’t have had a tattoo of his name forcibly since the job isn’t ‘easy’, has come as a big shock and an even bigger disappointment to all of us.
The case in which the rape victim had claimed that the accused forcibly tattooed his name on her arm, was completely overlooked as the bench said it is not an “easy job to make a tattoo if there is resistance from the other side”. But apparently it is an easy job to forcibly have sexual intercourse with someone?
"It's not an easy job to make a tattoo."
The Delhi High Court granted bail to a man accused of raping a woman, on grounds that his name was tattooed on her forearm.https://t.co/kLm9lmg4M4
— News18.com (@news18dotcom) February 13, 2021
Also Read : A Special Court Has Granted Bail To A Married Man Because He Agreed To Marry The 16YO Girl He Raped And Impregnated
This case had the victim claiming that she was forced into being in a relationship from the year 2016 to 2019, and it was during this time that the accused forced his name on her forearm as a tattoo. And considering how emotionally handicapping such instances and experiences are, it isn’t hard for us to believe that the victim was intimidated into getting a tattoo.
Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar however said, “In my opinion, making of tattoo is an art and special machine is required for the same. Moreover, it is also not easy to make such a tattoo which is on the forearm of the complainant if there is some resistance from the other side. It is not everybody’s job and it is also not the case of the prosecutrix that the petitioner had anything to do with the tattoo business.”
Tattoo On Woman's Hand Forces Delhi #HighCourt To Grant Bail To Rape Accused
Details: https://t.co/VgNmI2Ku7S pic.twitter.com/qn3pQEQXO3
— ABP News (@ABPNews) February 13, 2021
The woman who is said to be married, shared that all this while she was coerced into having physical relations with him and was even threatened to have her photos leaked if she tried to fall out of line. Meanwhile, the accused says they were in a consensual relationship and the tattoo on her arm was proof of her love towards him. He claims that the case was registered only after she failed to convince him to maintain ties.
The case is still ongoing and we are yet to find out who is telling the truth, but what irks us is the ease with which the Delhi High Court ruled that getting a tattoo forcibly is not easy, but completely overlooking the concept of consent in this case. This isn’t just an insult of a victim trying to come forward with their experience, but also undermining their trauma and hurt.
