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By:

Correspondent

23 August 2024 at 4:29:04 pm

Swift Justice

The rape and murder of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Maharashtra’s Nasrapur village was one of those crimes that momentarily dissolves the distinction between legal outrage and moral revulsion. Such acts seem to defy language as much as law. The Pune Special POCSO Court deserves commendation for demonstrating that justice need not be paralysed by delay. Its decision to sentence the convicted perpetrator, Bhimrao Kamble, to death within two months of the crime was notable not merely...

Swift Justice

The rape and murder of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl in Maharashtra’s Nasrapur village was one of those crimes that momentarily dissolves the distinction between legal outrage and moral revulsion. Such acts seem to defy language as much as law. The Pune Special POCSO Court deserves commendation for demonstrating that justice need not be paralysed by delay. Its decision to sentence the convicted perpetrator, Bhimrao Kamble, to death within two months of the crime was notable not merely for the punishment imposed, but for the court’s insistence on an unbroken chain of forensic and circumstantial evidence, scrupulous adherence to due process, and a reasoned application of the “rarest of rare” doctrine. The Nasrapur case demonstrates that the criminal justice system can function with remarkable efficiency when its various arms work in concert. The court proceeded without avoidable delay while ensuring due process. Conviction came within sixty days of the crime, followed swiftly by sentencing. Such timelines should be exceptional only because every criminal trial ought to aspire to them. This matters because deterrence rarely flows from the theoretical existence of the death penalty. Criminological research across jurisdictions has struggled to establish that capital punishment, by itself, prevents violent crime. A justice system that delivers certainty is a greater deterrent than one that merely promises severity. Long delays, hostile witnesses, poor investigations and collapsing prosecutions weaken public confidence far more than the absence of harsher laws. India scarcely suffers from a shortage of stringent laws. Successive amendments to criminal legislation and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act have steadily increased penalties over the past decade. The larger deficit has been institutional capacity, be it competent investigation, scientific evidence gathering, witness protection and efficient adjudication. The verdict serves as a reminder that justice ultimately depends on institutions that function, not merely on laws that promise severity. The debate over the morality or efficacy of capital punishment is unlikely to disappear. But whatever one’s position on the death sentence, few could dispute the importance of a judgment rooted in painstaking evidence rather than emotional clamour. The Nasrapur case exposed the uncomfortable truth that the convicted man had acted with a sense of impunity, emboldened by his criminal history. This points to a recurring institutional failure. Dangerous repeat offenders cannot be allowed to slip repeatedly through administrative cracks. Effective policing is not merely about solving crimes after they occur; it is equally about identifying habitual offenders, monitoring them appropriately and preventing opportunities for further violence. The true precedent of Nasrapur should be that every victim, irrespective of public attention or political pressure, receives an investigation anchored in science, a prosecution built on evidence and a trial conducted without needless delay. Justice earns public confidence not because it is swift or severe in isolation, but because it is both scrupulous and certain.

Clever seat selection helped BJP to secure historic win

The party won 65 seats against Congress, 37 against NCP (SP) and 29 against Shiv Sena (UBT)

Clever seat selection

Mumbai: The BJP’s strategic seat sharing with the allies has proved beneficial for the party. An analysis of the Assembly election results show that the BJP has scored over its main rival, the Congress, in a big way because of the direct fights.


The analysis shows that BJP defeated all three constituents of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) – in the direct fights. This is attributed as one of the reasons for the BJP’s historic poll success.


The BJP contested 147 out of 288 seats. In 76 constituencies, it faced Congress. BJP secured victory in 65 seats and lost only 11 seats, making it a whopping 86 per cent of the total direct fights. This was followed by an even stronger performance against NCP (SP). Of the total 39 fights with Sharad Pawar’s party, BJP captured 37 seats making it 95 per cent of the total fights with NCP (SP). BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) were head-to-head in 32 constituencies, of which BJP emerged victorious in 29 seats, making this 91 per cent of the total direct contests.


According to a BJP strategist the party had bargained hard with its allies, Shiv Sena and NCP to get the desired constituencies in the seat sharing formula. “We had studied to potential candidates of the MVA. That helped us in choosing the seats where we can register comfortable victories,” the strategist said.


BJP spokesperson Niranjan Shetty attributed the success to all the party workers who worked hard to boost development, infrastructure in the state. He gave credit to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for his contribution to the party’s success.


Shetty pointed out that in 2019, Uddhav Thackeray had stalled all the “novel” and “legendary” projects that Fadnavis had started when he had taken over as CM, making it very easy for the people of Maharashtra to strike a comparison between both the leaders and the potential they had for serving the people. “Devendra Fadnavis gave up his post very easily for the larger good. There are many such examples like Venkaiah Naidu who was BJP National President and later worked as the Vice President of India because that was the need of the hour. We seldom care about our posts,” Shetty told The Perfect Voice.


Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe refused to call the election results as the people’s mandate. “This is not at all a Janata mandate. Despite Maharashtra struggling with so many basic social issues, how can BJP acquire such a huge mandate is the question. If a student copies and fails with just passing marks, it can go unnoticed, but if a student copies and bags the number one position, something is fishy. Why is the BJP scared of ballot papers?” he said.

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