I'lll marry her if I can go free, says rapist who gouged out victim's eye

[emad]

May 05, 2005
Times
l'll marry her if I can go free, says rapist who gouged out victim's eye
From Catherine Philp in Delhi



THE young nurse should have spent yesterday quietly celebrating the sentencing of the hospital auxiliary who had raped her and gouged out one of her eyes before leaving her for dead. Instead she was hauled before a Delhi court to answer the defendant痴 proposal that he marry her to save her from dishonour ・and escape his punishment.

Minutes before the court was to hand down its sentence to Bhura, the convicted man, his lawyer intervened to present his astonishing offer. 的n order to save the life of the victim as well as both the families, the convict, from the core of his heart without prejudice to the merit of the case, is ready to marry her,・he told the court. Bhura, who uses one name like many Indians, was prepared to bear the cost of the wedding and accept the woman without a dowry. The court agreed to suspend sentencing and called for the woman ・and her parents ・to attend the next day to give her answer. The decision, which caused widespread outrage, is proving to be a large embarrassment for the Indian judiciary, which stands accused of putting medieval attitudes towards women above justice.

The case was already well-known in India because of its brutality. The nurse, then 19, was sleeping by the bedside of a comatose patient in Shanti Mukund hospital when the auxiliary attacked. As she tried to force him off, he plunged his fingers into her eyes, gouging out the right one and damaging the left. He dragged her to a bathroom where he raped her, locked her in and left her for dead. She has since been treated for depression and undergone four operations but has never recovered the sight in her right eye.

After hearing the court痴 decision she said: 的t is like being raped for a second time. I would rather die than marry him. He should be hanged so that such a horrendous act is not repeated.・
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1598048,00.html

"I'll marry him if the court agrees to cut off his testicles"????

[trotsky]

1. I just don't know what to say.

A line from South Park comes to mind, I guess: "That's fucked up right there, dude."

[Arkana]

13. Amen to that.

I can also think of "What the Funk & Wagnalls are you talking about?"

[FreedomAngel82]

20. It is

How gross.

:puke:

[MountainLaurel]

2. Unfortunately, this is fairly typical in some countries

Where laws dictate that a rapist who marries the victim cannot be charged. I remember some news stories about raped pre-teens in South America whose parents forced them to marry their rapists -- in some cases, family members such as uncles or cousins.

[noonwitch]

10. Italy had similar laws until the latter part of the 20th century

I don't know if they still have them on the books, so to speak, but it's not the practice there anymore.

India is in the middle of rapid social change, brought about by their industrial revolution. It takes time for the new changes to catch up with everyone and with their legal system. Once they ditch the dowry system and the caste system, hopefully things will improve for women all over the nation.

The arranged marriage thing, though, is not going anywhere for a while. That's deeply ingrained in the upper-caste traditions. It may change, but it will still be there. I saw Oprah interviewing a woman from India who said that in the big cities, it is sort of a dating service for upper-class people, and both parties are allowed an out if they don't get along. So, they are comfortable there with their parents fixing them up, I guess.

[Johnyawl]

3. Good for her!

"I would rather die than marry him. He should be hanged so that such a horrendous act is not repeated"

I hope she has the support of her family on this matter. There's too many countries, and cultures, where the family would have forced her to marry him, to spare them the "dishonor" of having had a daughter raped.

India is poised to become a world leader in the 21st century. Some of their cultural attitudes, and their Judiciary needs to get caught up.

[nashville_brook]

4. it can't happen HERE,

can it?

[aden_nak]

5. Not yet.

[uppityperson]

11. Coming soon to Texas and Florida, brought to you by the bush brothers

[Shallah Kali]

22. A judge in CA sentenced a molestor to marry his victim

I remember reading a few years ago about a judge that sentenced 2 men to marrying the girls the molested, The girls were 13or 14 years old. I hope this was not allowed to stand.

[Henny Penny]

6. What a catch!

:puke:

[Jack Rabbit]

7. Welcome to the 21st century, creep

Do not pass Go; do not collect $200.

Of course, somebody should give the judge a calendar, too. The lady should not have been dragged into the courtroom to listen to that. The judge should have admonished his attorney for even suggesting it and then sentenced Bruha to whatever maximum penalty the law allows.

That would have sent a better message.

[MaryBear]

16. This is not about centuries or calendars, Jack.

It is about brutality against women, and society's longstanding tolerance of it.

You're right about what the judge should have done. However, sending a message implies a coded statement, and this dehumanizing physical and emotional brutality of the rapist and his lawyer deserves more than an admonishment of the lawyer. I don't know what the judge could do but the message must be clear and uncoded.

[Orsino]

8. ...But gay marriage would make a mockery of the institution! n/t

[Name removed]

9. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[billyoc]

12. So, how'd you two meet?

I just can't imagine this sort of thing, even here in my own budding theocracy.

[maxsolomon]

14. its an Ann Coulter marriage!

answer the damn question, Ann.

[progressivebydesign]

15. When are women worldwide going to flex their power?????

I mean, really. If women actually spoke up, acted up, and started demanding politics, economy, a justice system, and a media, in this world that brought women UP not down, then there might be hope for all of us.

Nothing against men.. but it's time for women to share the power, and make some changes. That's what the Women's Movement was all about in the 70's, but was effectively squashed by the main stream media, a bunch of old white men in suits in corporate America.

I keep waiting for a resurgence of the 60's... because it was the natural result of the repressive times. Where are the women? Where are the protest songs?

[okieinpain]

17. hahahahaha, and this is the place where were outsourcing jobs

[Bhaisahab]

18. Update: Accused sentenced to life imprisonment

http://www.outlookindia.com/pti_news.asp?id=295969

Delhi hospital ward boy gets life sentence for rape

A ward boy, who proposed to marry his rape victim, was today sentenced to life imprisonment for the brutal act more than a year ago by a Delhi court after she rejected his offer and demanded death penalty for him.

"The crime committed by the convict was very grave in nature", Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik said and awarded maximum punishment to ward boy Bhura on two counts of the crime - for raping and grievously injuring a 22-year-old Keralite nurse of a private hospital here - rejecting his last-ditch effort to earn the court's leniency.

Pronouncing the order in a packed court room, the judge took a grim view of 24-year-old Bhura's proposal saying "unconvincing pleas of the accused do not save him but rather go to affix a stamp of truth on the prosecution story".

more at link above

[gardenista]

19. Good. Now I hope that the victim can regain some sort of

security and solace.

What a devastating experience.

[Gyre]

21. That is one fucked up country.

With a supremely fucked up legal system if this is even a possibility. They treat women like shit.

Gyre

[ConsAreLiars]

23. Don't damn a whole country because of the words of a rapist,

The judge took his words as a corroboration of his guilt. A life sentence. Compare that outcome to what happens here in the Fundie US of A, where having a certain plant is punished more severely than rape or homicide. Now THAT is one truly fucked-up country.