IMPHAL, December 4: As part of the international fortnight long observation protesting violence against women, the Women Action for Development, WAD today organized a consultative meet on “Crime against women with special focus on rape and its remedies” at the Classic hotel.
Today’s meet was attended by Ahanthem Romen Kumar advocate and retd IGP, Dr Supriya, forensic department of RIMS, prof. Chinglen Maisnam dept of economics, Manipur University, OJ Meetei, consultant UNM-M and Rupachandra Yumnam, chief editor ISTV as presidium members.
The meet was conducted in two sessions with Ahanthem Romen Kumar and Dr Supriya presenting their reports during the first session.
Ahanthem Romen Kumar presented his paper on crime against women with special focus on rape and its remedies.
In his presentation, the former police officer stated that “Rape is not only a crime against the person of a woman, it is a crime against the entire society. It destroys the entire psychology of a woman and pushes her into deep emotional crisis. It is a crime against basic human rights, and is also violation of the victim’s most cherished fundamental rights, namely, the right to life”.
Providing various suitable explanations, the former police officer expressed at the consultative meet that a rape victim can file an FIR with proper explanation in case of delay in filling FIR at the time of incident.
He further put forth that such crimes like molestation or rape case should not be settled with customary law and should be settled through proper legal actions and punitive actions, and further added that the victim family should not inform the local organizations and to directly inform the police and file a case. His report further added that the concern police should also properly investigate the incident.
Dr Supriya presented her report on the topic ‘role of medico-legal expert in detecting crime against women with particular reference to rape.
In her report she has provided numerous insights on the dos and don’ts which are crucial for the investigation of a rape.
The forensic expert has stated that any incident of rape should be reported to the police as early as possible and an authorised person should be asked for examination of the victim.
Further in her report she has deliberated that after the incident the victim should not bath, douche, change clothes, take other action that destroys/contaminates any evidence present. Her report has further deliberated that undressing the victim should be avoided and in case of undressing, the victim should do it herself and there should be a female attendant.
There should be no delay in examination and the incident should not be reported to clubs and meira paibis, or other organizations for settlement, her report added.
In the second session of the meet, Rupachandra Yumnam presented his report on the role of media in reporting crime against women with reference to rape, suicide, murder, etc, while Chinglen Maisnam presented his report on role of academicians in preventing crime against women in the context of Manipur.
OJ Meetei presented his report on role of NGOs in prevention of crime against women.
