A disturbing trend of filing of false rape cases has come to the fore, mocking stringent laws adopted by the parliament last year to prevent crime against women. The Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) has come out with startling statistics showing that 53.2% of the rape cases filed between April 2013 and July 2014 in the capital were found 'false'.
The report says that between April 2013 and July 2014, of the 2,753 complaints of rape, only 1,287 cases were found to be true, and the remaining 1,464 cases were found to be false.
The report further revealed that between June 2013 and December 2013, the number of cases found to be untrue were 525. And in between, January 2014 and July 2014, the number of false rape cases were 900.
The Delhi Commission of Women further said it was investigating individual complaints of rape to ensure the victims get justice. However, it added that in many cases, the complainant turned hostile, and that revenge emerged to be the most common reason for filing a false complaint.
In all, in 2013 there were a total of 1,559 cases of rape in Delhi, where the acquittal rate was 78%. This was a 22% jump from the earlier 46% of acquittal in 2012, when there were a total of 680 cases filed.
The report comes in the wake of the Allahabad high court directing a CBI probe last month into the complaint filed by a woman judicial officer against two relatives. The court wanted the probe to ascertain whether the officer was "misusing her official position", or there was a genuine lapse of security at her house at the Jugdes' Compound at Aligarh, an area with round the clock surveillance and security. Last year, a Delhi court said that it was "becoming a very difficult job, now-a-days, for the courts to differentiate the genuine rape cases from the false ones", while acquitting the four of a family accused in the case. Last week, the Jaipur police busted an extortion racket run by a woman who threatened men to pay her or face a rape complaint.
Shamina Shafiq, of the National Commission of Women, said that she was not aware of the investigative report, but said that the revelation was quite unfortunate. "It is sad that people are misusing the rape laws to settle scores, while there are so many women who have nowhere to turn to in genuine cases. How will they gather the guts if this turns out to be the trend? A victim's family will also dissuade her from complaining," said Shafiq.
Cases filed Cases untrue
2012 680 : 312
2013 1,559 : 1,216
2014 (till July) :1,253 900
Number of false rape cases, total unknown
June 2012 to December 2012 -- 525
January 2013 to july 2013 -- 900
March 2014 -- 142
July 2014, -- 139
