The Limits of Justice

What do you do when a rape victim does not want to pursue a 20-year-old case?

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the Delhi High Court, addressing the case of a missing file of a rape case that dates 20 years back, left the court and the advocates in a dilemma last week after the victim said she didn’t want to pursue the case because her in-laws didn’t know about it.

The victim was 16 when she was allegedly kidnapped by Brahm Pali, a woman Home Guard constable, from Connaught Place. She was taken to Pali’s home, where her son, Karan Pali, raped her and tried to forcibly marry her before she was rescued. Karan Pali is currently serving a rape sentence in another case.

The PIL, filed by Delhi-based lawyer Shweta Singh last month, asks the court to take action against the police, which declared the matter ‘settled’ even as its case file went missing. The case never reached the trial court. The PIL has demanded that the case be reopened.

Now married and settled in Delhi, the victim passed a handwritten note to the judge during a hearing last week. In this, she said that the incident had occurred 20 years ago and though it was never resolved, she wasn’t interested in taking it further as it might affect her family life. Her husband’s family does not know about the incident. Since the matter was already admitted in court, the judges had to move ahead anyway and they have ordered the trial court to ‘reconstruct’ the missing file. They have also ordered the police to fix responsibility on the investigating officers who declared the case closed.

Singh, however, is in a dilemma. Intrigued by the case after a colleague filed an RTI in the matter, she filed the PIL as she was ‘appalled’ at the way things were handled by the police. It was during the course of her investigation that she found out that Karan Pali was a repeat offender. “Pali was released on bail and the matter never went to the trial court after the file went missing. This is why I want to take it further,” she says. “But her (the victim’s) right to privacy is also a valid point,” she adds.

While the court has asked the Delhi Police to submit a reply within four months, Singh says she doesn’t know yet how to pursue the case. “I will have to see how it unfolds and let the law take its course,” she says.

Brahm PaliConnaught Placerape victim