Inchoate justice

The "Fast Track Sessions Court" at Bengaluru has at last delivered its judgement in the HP GlobalSoft BPO case. A lady staffer in this company was kidnapped, raped and murdered on December 13, 2005 by the driver of one of the cars assigned to transport staff.

The cab driver has been sentenced for life. Explaining why capital punishment was not given, the Judge has said,"The act has not been committed by a hired assassin, nor was it cold-blooded. There was no dominating control over the deceased. She was not a helpless woman. The crime was not enormous in nature and not in the "rarest of rare" bracket. This was not a case of bride-burning and not against a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste or minority religion." The judge has also opined that the accused must be given the opportunity to reform himself.

Very strange reasoning indeed. You expect a kidnapper cum rapist cum murderer to reform himself ? If our law is like this, the law needs to be revised. Soft state and a softer judiciary will only ensure that we bequeath a violence-prone future to our posterity. Nothing can be more unjust.