For the simple reason that studies all over the world have shown that speedy justice, witness protection, preventive policing help reduce the instance of crime. Capital punishment has not proved to be a deterrent in reducing crime. More here.
For the simple reason that people who say they are happy to hear that Santosh will be hanged reflect a lynch mob mentality that makes me want not to live in such a society. You know what’s wrong with a lynch mob mentality? This.
For the simple reason that the idea of justice should be to reform criminals and/or keep them away from society in a jail if they are a social menace and/or take away some of their right to freedom to make them regret and to set an example for others.
For the simple reason that capital punishment legitimises the use of violence as a means to and end – not very different from what Santosh did to Priyadarshini.
For the simple reason that it will give all the more reason to future rapists to murder the woman after raping her, lest letting her live make it easier for her to identify him, come up with evidence and thus ensuring that he is hanged to death.
For the simple reason that the Indian judiciary says that capital punishment should be given in the rarest of rare cases, and this is not one of them. Rapes and murders take place all the time. The court’s explanation is that Santosh was a law student, a police officer’s son, and an educated man. That is showing too much confidence in modern education, as if an illiterate man wouldn’t know that rapie and murder are wrong.
For the simple reason that the desire to see his life extinct reflects society’s desire to disown his act of crime as being ‘inhuman’. But what Santosh did was very human, born out of human impulses, and has to be resolved within the parameters of human society, not outside it, not with an equally ‘inhuman’ form of punishment.
For the simple reason that hanging Santosh Kumar Singh will not bring Priyadarshini Mattoo back to life.
PS: I wrote a post saying that Mohd Afzal should not be hanged in the unsolved Parliament Attack case ten days after the Supreme Court pronounced the sentence. I am writing a post saying that Santosh Kumar Singh should not be hanged 1 day after the sentence has been pronounced. All those loonies suggesting that Afzal was defended because he was Muslim and Santosh is not being defended, lay off. It is you whose politics has a gaping moral hole. Not me.
Besides, there is an additional powerful reason why Afzal should not be hanged. The case against Santosh is more convincing than the one against Afzal. Even if there is a 0.01% chance that Afzal is innocent, we will not be able to bring his life back. And Afzal was not given legal counsel at the trial stage.
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:)
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Bravo!
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But then what about Priyadarshini Mattoo’s relatives..would they be ever satisfied? they might take law into their own hand and try to take revenge from Santosh Kumar Singh’s relatives!
I think we have to accept the fact if the case has been proven without even a shadow of doubt then he should be hanged. It will also serve as a warning to all those who for some reason or other want to indulge in this heinous crime. Death is fear that shakes even the strongest of man. I think the court should go ahead with the punishment.
You wrote: “And Afzal was not given legal counsel at the trial stage.”
You might want to read the relevant judgement:
http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/qrydisp.asp?tfnm=27092
“The first point raised by Mr. Sushil Kumar, appearing for the accused Afzal, was that he was denied proper legal aid, thereby depriving him of effective defence in the course of trial. In sum and substance, the contention is that the counsel appointed by the Court as ‘amicus curiae’ to take care of his defence was thrust on him against his will and the first amicus appointed made concessions with regard to the admission of certain documents and framing of charges without his knowledge. It is further submitted that the counsel who conducted the trial did not diligently cross-examine the witnesses. It is, therefore, contended that his valuable right of legal aid flowing from Articles 21 and 22 is violated. We find no substance in this contention. The learned trial Judge did his best to afford effective legal aid to the accused Afzal when he declined to engage a counsel on his own. We are unable to hold that the learned counsel who defended the accused at the trial was either inexperienced or ineffective or otherwise handled the case in a casual manner. The criticism against the counsel seems to be an after thought raised at the appellate stage. It was rightly negatived by the High Court.”
In the light of this information (freely available on the web, and the first document that anyone commenting on his case should read), I think you might want to edit that last line.
On a related note, the entire last paragraph does not seem to make much sense. What is the “additional powerful reason”? What is the idea behind calling one case more convincing than the other? And that “Even if” does not make sense either because no matter what the chances are, you can not bring anyone back to life.
Apologies for asking clarifications about the language of the post, I don’t happen to have anything new to say on the content when so many people have said so much.
Sharique,
Why were you against Afzal’s death penalty? And why do you favor Santosh’s death penalty?
Are you saying that you are OK with death penalty as long as YOU think there is no doubt that the court made an error?
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For the simple reason that the Indian judiciary says that capital punishment should be given in the rarest of rare cases, and this is not one of them. Rapes and murders take place all the time.
Wtf??????
So, when you say ‘rarest of rare’…what do you mean? Just because it is rare that someone will steal one rupee fromyour purse, should he be given capital punishment?
people who say they are happy to hear that Santosh will be hanged reflect a lynch mob mentality
I think it is a far-fetched idea…..people who say that they want him hanged, are NOT taking the law into their hands, so there.
idea of justice should be to reform criminals and/or keep them away from society in a jail if they are a social menace and/or take away some of their right to freedom to make them regret
Do you seriously think so, or are you writing this simply to increase the length of your blog post, and to get some comments for publicity? You really think you can ‘reform’ rapists???????
Sharique,
I hope you were joking there, for you are demonstrating yourself to be some sort of an imbecile with that comment!
If SKS isn’t hanged PM’s relatives wont be “satisfied” and will try to take “revenge”, hence to avert both “dissatisfaction” and their taking “revenge”, he must be hanged. Is that your point? Or were you trying to make us laugh?
If yes, a very very sad one, indeed.
“For the simple reason that the Indian judiciary says that capital punishment should be given in the rarest of rare cases, and this is not one of them. Rapes and murders take place all the time.”
so, according to you someone must commit new crimes to get hanged??? the rarest of the rare means notonly the crime but also how it is committed.
why do you think that keeping a person in jail till he dies, away from his loved ones, from sun and everything else, inside a cramped room is better than death? because so many people have said that slavery is worse than death.
“For the simple reason that hanging Santosh Kumar Singh will not bring Priyadarshini Mattoo back to life.”
nothing will bring her back. so why bother? we should let all rapists and murders out. why waste taxpayer’s money? that can better be utilized for developmental work.
“For the simple reason that it will give all the more reason to future rapists to murder the woman after raping her, lest letting her live make it easier for her to identify him, come up with evidence and thus ensuring that he is hanged to death.”
or he simply may not rape her at all for a picture of hanging santosh sing may come in front of his eyes.
“For the simple reason that the desire to see his life extinct reflects society’s desire to disown his act of crime as being ‘inhuman’. But what Santosh did was very human, born out of human impulses, and has to be resolved within the parameters of human society, not outside it, not with an equally ‘inhuman’ form of punishment.”
if raping and murdering is human, how come capital punishment is inhuman? so, society “is” resolving this issue in a “human” manner!
Polite Indian,
Its not my opinion that he, Afzal, is guilty. I have based my arguments on what I have read. Many have raised doubts on the fairness of trial but no one has in Santosh’s case. I am handicapped by what I get to read in national dailies.
Vulturo,
When i write something for people to laugh they think i am a hypocrite and what not. And when i am serious then people call me imbecile. That’s wonderful!
Where did PM’s relatives come into picture? Ah, you mean to say that PM’s relatives will be the most hurt if Afzal is not hanged?? My argument was simple; It’s human tendency to seek revenge and until and unless his thirst is quenched, he cannot rest in peace. For peace to prevail judiciary systems should have capital punishment because then only the animosity won’t exist (because the state will be responsible for the killing then).
Hi Shivam, I have been a regular reader of your blog and appreciate the zeal with which you approach most of what you write. There is a sense of commitment which is obvious from the passion in all your writing. Commitment, however, also involves, amongst other things, a revision of views when a particular stance, which you take in the post above, is clearly flawed. I do agree with you about capital punishment being inhuman, the mob mentality and so on… But where you clearly get it wrong is in your attempts to justify the crime either because it is not very rare or it arising out of human impulses. I think from an activist’s point of view this position is clearly untenable because the crime is committed not in a vacuum but on a real living person. In this respect, your views and this appeal, allows for the violence of the vilest kind. Let me clarify again – I agree with your appeal in essence but your arguments supporting it cleary betray your insensitivity towards what the enormity of the crime, for no individual rape is common. I will take the liberty, which you might not allow me, and ask you to clarify your position.
Another great post, Shivam.
Sharique,
LMAO! But you’ve said the same thing again.
Craving for revenge / Baying for blood is a human tendency, and it apparently a “good thing”, is it?. What you are saying is that it is essential that PM’s relatives thirst for SKS’s blood must be quenched, whichever way it is. So if the state does not satisfy the cravings of PM’s relatives, they may go ahead and kill the SKS dude themseles (Which wouldn’t be a good thing, or which would be a equally bad thing? What?) or engage in acts of violence and god knows what (Mommy, I’m scared). So SKS’s goose its cooked anyway: If the state doesn’t cook it, PM’s relatives or someone other deranged soul will cook it. Therefore, it is better the state should cook it. Isn’t that what you are trying to say.
Now that I’m sure you weren’t joking, I can say this due respect: You’re weird, Sir.
First of all let me confess that I was one among those, to borrow your very well-thought out and expressive words, “loonies” who asked for such a post. However, I take strong objection to the insinuation that I ever suggested that Afzal was defended, and very vociferously at that, because of his religion. I am posting the relevant portion of my comments posted under your post titled “Blogger Meet Happening” dated 30th October
“I hope to see a post from you in this regard and the customarty[sic] ‘a la Afzal stance’ vis-a-vis your moral opposition to the death penalty; or is it something that should be exclusivley[sic]reserved for friendly neighbourhood terrorist thuggs from across the border and “angry young men” from our own who support them”
You can find my comment in it’s entirety here:-
http://www.shivamvij.com/2006/10/blogger-meet-happening.html#comments
That said, I am happy to note that you have stuck to your guns and maintained the same rectitude in Santosh Kumar Singh’s case, as well. However, that does not mean that I endorse your views vis-a-vis the death penalty and let me put forth some very not-so-simple reasons on Why Santosh Kumar Singh should be given the capital punishment.
* Speedy Justice is a very illusive concept and it is open to interpretation. Hasty trials are know to result in verdicts detrimental to the cause of justice and can be taken as defence as a legitimate grounds for appeal.
Witness protection on the other hand, is expensive, and hence impracitcable in a country like ours, where the entire judiciary makes do with shoe-string budgets, and to it’s credit does a stellar job at that.
Furthermore, the very idea of witness protection assumes that the rich and the powerful criminal, as is so often the case, does not subvert justice by influencing witnesses. Examples of this are aplenty, as seen in the
case of Jessica Lall ; Nitish Katara;Sanjeev Nanda and his BMW; that darling of Bollywood Salman Khan- in whose case a Police Constable turned hostile and the very case of Santosh Singh where the entire Police Force played the role of hand maiden to the criminal, in the initial stages of the investigation.
Preventive Policing is one concept that is incompatible with the very tenets of liberal democracy, and is the first step towards an Orwellian nightmare. It is but one step away It assumes that the individual is prone to crime and has to have an active disincentive not to indulge in it, a very secular version of Original Sin , if I may appropriate that term. Moreover, we have had all too many instances of “successes” in Preventive Policing, during that dizzying height of democracy that we fondly remember as the Emergency.
* Is it so incomprehensible that the ‘lynch mob mentality” as you chose to refer to people’s yearning for justice has a root cause. The fact that the rich and the powerful get away with murder has disillusioned many about the effectiveness of our justice system. Lest we forget, it is the same “lynch mob” that got together to get the verdict of the trial court overturned and ensured that, in the end, justice prevailed.
*The idea of Justice is not, and I repeat IS NOT to reform criminals, but to ensure a level playing field for all members of a society, irrespective of who or what they are. In other words, Justice ensures that the cornerstone principle of Equality is preserved in a democracy. The role of reforming criminals is left to the executive, viz. the prison service or it’s equivalent, who ensure that the convict is incarcerated for a stipulated duration thereby ensuring that he is denied of the freedoms that is shared by the rest. Is it so very inconcievable that Santosh Singh would not ‘use’ the authorities the same way he ‘used’ the Police during the initial stage of the investigations? Aren’t you familiar with the infamous prisons of Bihar- India’s very own Club-Med- where the rich and the powerful ‘retire’ to tide over the wrath of the judiciary; only to enjoy the privileges that most of us would not enjoy in our homes?
Regret is a feeling that comes from self reflection, and Santosh Singh had no fewer than 10 years to reflect on what he had donw. What makes you think that he would regret his actions were the court to award him with a feather-light sentence?
* Far from legitimising violence as a means to an end, Capital Punishment serves a an end to the violent means, which in this case Santosh Singh adopted. It would serve as a potent reminder to the Yadavs, the Sharmas and the Khans and the Afzals of this country that no matter how powerful or how popular or how terrifying they are, justice shall prevail and they will all be held acccountable for their crimes.
* The facts of this particular case totally belies your claim. Santosh Singh murdered Priyadarshini Mattoo after raping her, with the presumable objective of silencing the witness who would have inculpated him the most. Furthermore, he got the Police to do a shoddy job with the investigation which resulted him being acquitted during the trial stage. The fact that his father was a senior Police Officer might have helped him in this regard. However, due to a very courageous father who was bent on ensuring that the murderer of his daughter was brought to justice and an alert media that suddenly seemed to regain that sense of indignation that we seemed to have lost somewhere along the way, this case was given the proper attention and the appeal was upheld. Nowhere in this instance do I find anything that would encourage future rapists to murder their victims. If at all these events wouild result in anything, it would be to dissuade a potential criminal in the making from commiting a crime under the hope that he would be able to use his money or muscle power or friends in high places to get away with it.
* The Supreme Court laid down the criterion for Capital Punishment, so as to serve as a guideline for the lower courts while imposing the same. Rapes and murders might take place all the time, but had such verdicts been handed down more often, several instances of such crimes could have been averted. Santosh Singh’s action denied an individual, who had the same rights as he did, the right to life. What right does he have in asking for himself the vey same right that he has denied unto his fellow being?
* The society that we live in demands that each and every one of us should suppress certain “human impulses”; lest we descend into utter chaos. Rape is a violent crime and has nothing to do with the human impulse you are alluding to. People don’t rape and murdrer others based on their human impulse, they rape upon an inhuman impulse, and nothing short of that. The parameters of human society that you live in dictates that certain crimes would attract certain punishments and those who don’t agree to that are free to move to some place where the laws are more to their liking.Maybe I should suggest our friendly neighbourhood Talibanesque Republic, where the normal outcome in a rape trial is for the victim to be stoned to death, for adultery.
Afzal was convicted by three different courts giving concurrent findings, whereas Santosh was awarded punishment by the High Court after the trial court had acquitted him. If one were to apply the same logic, if at all anything, Santosh should be held less guilty than Afzal, but all of us know that such a logic would be nothing short of absurd. Furthermore, there is no comparison amongst these two cases as both were awarded the noose for entirely different crimes. Howvever, the fact that both were awarded the noose would serve as an active reminder to the Manu Sharmas and the Vikas Yadavs of this country that justice would prevail, no matter what they do to subvert it’s cause.
Vulturo,
I wonder why your logical mind is inept at accepting my explanation and stop getting personal…i have maintained the decorum of this discussion so far.
See, think logically…someone murders your daughter, first rapes her and then the murder. What are you going to do? Forgive him for the sake of humanity? I know nothing can bring back the lost life…its a dream shattered but then her relatives will at least expect the man to be hanged for his crime.
Its not about being “Craving for revenge / Baying for blood”, its about tit for tat. SKS committed a heinous crime and he should be given the severest of punishment and that is death in this case or perhaps life imprisonment. And i do acknowledge that it depends on individual to individual(this revenge tendency).
BTW i never called this tendency good. But this is natural and you just cannot deny that.
“P.S. I wrote a post saying that Mohd Afzal should not be hanged in the unsolved Parliament Attack case ten days after the Supreme Court pronounced the sentence. I am writing a post saying that Santosh Kumar Singh should not be hanged 1 day after the sentence has been pronounced. All those loonies suggesting that Afzal was defended because he was Muslim and Santosh is not being defended, lay off. It is you whose politics has a gaping moral hole. Not me”
I was going to say something, but in your PS, you said it yourself!!!
It looks way too obvious that your opposition to Santosh’s hanging is only so that your position on Afzal is not diluted. Otherwise you couldnt care less about Santosh!
My perception!
Hi, Your arguments are pretty sane.. to say the least and I do stand by most of them BUT… Dearey.. We must understand one thing we have to tell the perpetrators of such crime against women that there is no place for them in the society especially at a time when crime against women is at an all time high…
We definitely need to set a example and send a strict message across… to those who do not consider women more than just objects of desire and have little or no respect from them…
Also once an example is set that acts as a deterrent for the likes of ingh probably the civil society can think of other means like transformation etc….
“Capital punishment has not proved to be a deterrent in reducing crime”
How can anyone prove that?
And if you extend that logic, nor has the existence of criminal laws proved to be a deterrent in reducing crime. So should we get rid of those as well?
The question is, when would you define a crime as “the rarest of rare”? Also, do you think capital punishment should ever be used?
Afzal’s case is completely different; Arundhati Roy is one of the few people who’ve done extensive research and her piece in Outlook (which you sent me!) shows that there is no real evidence against him.
I would be interested in reading your replies to the above comments.
For the simple reason that it will give all the more reason to future rapists to murder the woman after raping her, lest letting her live make it easier for her to identify him, come up with evidence and thus ensuring that he is hanged to death.
JOKE of the week.
Sounds like a poetry …. simple reason… should be the title.
Lets have a strong example to those you think they can do anything without fear… its saza a maut … and their family will suffer and kids orphaned .. it will be detterent. If a santosh sing could be hanged ,,… other crack pots will shiver even at the thought of touching a lady’s integrity at the very thought of the noose. How he killed her , i can just feel the pain and the despair of a young , educated girl… only can feel. This has to stop !!!! and your blog as well.
And this guy happily married and had kids … damm the girl who married this Bastard …it will also be a detterent for other people not to marry rapist just because they got a clean chit from the court ( influence )
Lots of opinions, many (most?) with strong emotive bents. May I seek to put in a perspective, please?
1. Capital Punishment is an extreme measure, extremely cruel and highly debatable. There used to be a time when execution was done in public almost all over the world. I was a big show attended byhuge masses, men and women alike. Even today in KSA etc. such practices are there. Rest of the owrld, presumably a s amrk of civilization has come away from such. Why is it called civilized not to do it publicly (which apparently even entertain a good number)? Well that is civilization. Where the State does not believe in organizing an extreme torture for its citizens, of such mindless humanity.
The ‘rarest of rarest’ concept simply means it can awarded for extremely exceptional crimes of highest gravity. It means that its target can only be people who are extremely excpetional as proved by their gory acts. Anything that has a more frequtn occurance, means its something that a certain part of the populace has a proneness towards it. That means our nature, conditioning etc. play a role in it. It’s not just a weird devil in some out-of-the-world character, who can no way be handled or probably reformed.
2. The Santosh Sings and others did know (whether or not they were sane enough to understand it simplications) that they were going to cause such harm and pain to their victims. But they did not feel it themselves. This is ‘De-humanizing’ the person.
And what are we doing seeking to hang them… exactly the same. De-humanizing them. Shows we are made of the SAME MATERIAL. He had his own bent to motivate himself. We have our faith/preference to prompt us. The mechanism is the same as is the effect. No wonder such criminals are born from among us only. It’s merely a slightly different individual expression of what we collectively practice.
3. The first principle of justice is strict rationality and unbiasedness. Justice is for both, the accuser and the accused… in strict proportions. The glee expressed by some of us seeking a hanging, simeply renders us unworthy of such decision-making.
No offence please. Please feel what I am saying. Do you feel in your heart the pain of a man waiting for death? and then say with a sigh..’it’s unbearable…but there’s no way out’. Or do we just frown our brows and feel we are more comfortable without some dirt. So let’s just eliminate them, simple.
4. There have been many studies on capitalism. Interestingly, there were even studies about capital punishment enhance the crime-rate. The general find is, it neither increases nor decrease the crime rate.
5. Let’s take some cue from some great minds, who probably just understood the humanminds and societal tendencies a little better than us.
Christ, Buddha, Gandhi were all stringly against such vindictive acts. Christ in fact had said, “… let he who has not sinned, cast the first stone.’
They were the greatest people.. .they knew what was good fro us. But of course we feel (regarding all matters of life taht is) we are smarter than them and so who cares what they said.
6. The transformation of the Society (not just the matter of crime against women; most voilent crimes are committed against men only, though it’s not in fashion to talk that way in todays world, hence it sounds to alien) can come only through patience, spreading love and forbearance. Vile tendencies are there in each of us, whether or not we realize. (In fact, the strong tendency to denounce comes from that only. The strong urge to state (and to feel) I don’t belong to that side. We denounce essentially a part of us, outside objects (like criminals here) are just pretexts.) We all need to work together to spread love and tolerance. And the first victim would be such mindless public cruelty.
Just one addl. point here: If someone thinks Srikrishna advocated killing of evils, please note his first advice is ‘bijwara bhabah’. Clear your feverishness first. Commit an act (even if its killing) stationed in a perfect state of wisdom and justness, with unbiasedness and non-chalance. Do it not because it pleases you, but becase that is what dharmna demands. Gods can do it, as they can give lives. For us mortals the first challenge is to become divine, before we are worthy of that.
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Santosh should not be hanged.
He should be kept alive till his natural death; he should be feed up at least three times a day.
HE SHOULD BE TORTURED BRUTALLY.
The each and every torture moment should be broadcasted in every national and private channel.
This is how we can put law and punishment fear in the mind of people.
To all those people who said these men shouldn’t be hanged,
When someone from your family is raped, killed or murdered then you ll know the exact pain and the anguish. Capital punishment is given because no one should dare to do the crime again. Its a saying that if you stop a thieve from doing stealing something the first time itself then there is 90% chance that he wont do it again but if you let him do it and wont correct him then there is a 100% chance for him or someone else to do it. So my dear friends, its better these filthy men be hanged so that no one will dare to such things again. Afzal is not hanged yet thats why so many attacks still going on. Santosh Kr Singh isn’t hanged thats why so many rapes and murders still going on.
What if someone from your family is the victim.
Give it a thought and then speak.
Lot of people saying that raping a girl and kill her isn’t a rarest of rare case. How foolish?? You are not calling it rarest of rare case because no one was punished or hanged when something like this happened for the first time. Its so common now..right?? lets make it uncommon and hang this guy so that no one dares to do it again and it will fall under rarest of rare cases.
Let us not talk to “Capital Punishment”! Let’s talk about ….let’s see…Priyadarshini Mattoo! A 25 year old student, leading her life. Murdered by a goon who barged into her house and beat her up so brutally before killing her that his right hand was fractured! Let’s leave this animal free??? A man who stalked her and harassed her continually before. To the extent that she was given police protection! This girl could be you, me, our daughters, sisters! Please let’s not be so criminally soft hearted! Yes, hanging Santosh Kumar Singh will not bring back Priyadarshini. But it makes the world a safer place when men like this man no longer roam free! And why on earth should this man have any rights? He certainly does not respect others’!
Justice is blind, not because of lack of sight but because it weighs everyone on the same scale….rich, poor, high, low, man, woman, black or white!
When we shield the terrorist from the consequences of his crime, who shall pay the price for the lives he has taken? For the agony he has inflicted? His victims??? Or shall we leave everything to God? Let Him run governments, schools, hospitals, our lives….and let us do nothing!
There are some things we cannot ignore! Some things worth fighting for! Some ideals that make sense pursuing! Extreme softheartedness is cowardice in disguise!
Vulturo,
You write somewhere that “to rape someone” is natural where as revenge is not?
Where do you come from? Hypocrite planet? Think about what you vouch for.
& to Nishi Singh Chouhan,
Your comment mirrored my thought. Bravo to you on that comment.