Mr. Mukesh Singh, one of the convicted rapists in the 2012 brutal rape in New Delhi which resulted in the gruesome death of the victim, blamed the victim for the rape in an interview with British filmmaker, Leslee Udwin, as reported in New York Times. The filmmaker was documenting the incident in 2012 during which the victim was brutally raped while her male companion was injured in a rape committed inside a bus in New Delhi.
The rapist blamed the victim saying a decent girl should not be roaming the streets at 9 pm at night and she should be doing her housework at home, which is the place she should belongs at such hours. The victim and her male companion had boarded an empty bus without knowing that it was out of service after watching a movie at the cinema. Mukesh Singh and five other cohorts were roaming the street looking for victims when this unfortunate encounter occured.
“You can’t clap with one hand,” said Mr. Singh, who was convicted of rape and murder, though he denied taking part in the assault.
“It takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 percent of girls are good.”
However, the comments from the rapist were met with public outrage in India not against the rapist but surprisingly against the filmmaker for airing it. This led to the Home Minister requesting a court restraining order to gag her from publishing the contents of the interview. The court issued the order with the following statement :-
“It create an atmosphere of fear and tension with the possibility of public outcry and law and order situation.”
The order said the film violated four Indian statutes, including one against “intent to cause alarm in the public” and another banning acts “intended to outrage the modesty of a woman.” according to New York Times.
Ms Leslee interpreted the gag order as a ban.
“That means they have banned a film which is in the public interest without having seen it, without having requested a copy of it,” she said. The film will be distributed through social media, she added.
“No intelligent person can watch this film and not understand that these remarks are not being promulgated,” she said.
