Reporting By: Amit Kashyap
As per a news recently in noida an 81-year-old sketch artist has been arrested after an FIR was lodged against him under Indian Penal Code Sections 376 (rape), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation). This man is accused of digital rape of a 17-year-old girl over the last seven years.
Now there might be a question in your mind that What is digital rape & how can someone rape digitally???
Well….For your information,
‘digital rape’ does not relate to any sexaul offence committed digitally, like defacing someone’s identity on the internet or misusing any digital platform’.
It, however, refers-
to the act of forcibly inserting fingers or toes inside the other person’s private parts without consent. So lets see what is digital rape in-depth and its Punishment.
What Is Digital Rape?
Since there are incidents of sexual assault through digital mediums, the phrase “digital rape” may conjure up images of the web or the cyber environment. ‘Digital rape’ does not refer to any sexual offence committed online, such as defacing an individual’s identity on the internet or misusing any online platform.
It does, however, apply to the conduct of forcefully inserting one’s fingers or toes into the private parts of an individual without their consent. Since the term ‘digit’ in the English vocabulary implies finger, thumb, and toe, the act has been termed ‘digital rape.’
Until December 2012, ‘digital rape’ was deemed as molestation and did not fall under the definition of rape. Following the horrific Nirbhaya gang-rape case in 2012, new rape laws were introduced in parliament, and the act was designated as a sexual crime.
Justice denied due to loopholes in law Previously, in Mumbai, a 2-year-old was brought to the hospital bleeding, where doctors discovered that her vagina was ruptured, but there was no evidence of sexual abuse or rape. Her father, however, was later found to be penetrating the little girl with his fingers. He was taken into custody, but not prosecuted or punished under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code, which addresses rape crimes.
In another case, a 60-year-old woman was sexually assaulted by an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi, using an iron bar to penetrate the 60-year-old passenger who was visiting a relative’s marriage ceremony. The driver was arrested yet again but was not charged under Section 376 of the IPC.
This highlighted multiple loopholes in Section 376 of the IPC, that deals with sexual offenses, because crimes committed under digital rape, which essentially involved a “violation of a woman’s dignity using fingers, foreign material, or any other part of the human body, were not deemed a crime under any section.
Just because they are not violating her body with their penis, criminals try to digitally rape women and children. Government finds it hard to treat these cases under the rapist law of India. Though, the new changes were made soon. It guaranteed to offer proper protection to females against these barbaric acts of criminals.
Despite the fact that digital rape is a gender-neutral term that covers all types of victims and offenders, Indian legislations only define female victims and male offenders.
Where does it appear in the law?
Rape, as per the new definition, is defined as the “act of forcing a male genital, any foreign object, or any other part of the body into a woman’s genitals, mouth, anus, or urethra.
According to multiple reports, 70 percent of the time, the individual who offended a woman’s modesty or infringed the dignity of a child was someone they personally knew. As per records, these crimes have majorly been committed by a person close to the victim.
Punishment for digital rape
Under the POCSO Act, the offender faces at least 5 years jail term. However, if a person is charged under Section 376, this punishment can be extended to ten years or even life imprisonment.
Close ones commit it and that is why people should know more
It is astounding to know that people do not have much idea about the phenomenon. Apparently, people should be more vigilant about this phenomenon than the rape in the traditional sense. This is because these kinds of rapes are committed by near and dear ones. Though it is not a rule, in rape cases, the victim and perpetrator have a certain degree of distance between them. But, in digital rape, it is almost always close ones that turn out to be the perpetrator.
Whenever the term comes up, most people assume that this is something which happens in online spaces like metaverse. These kinds of confusions not just reek of absurdity, but also tells us how much we as a society are serious about curbing animalistic instincts.
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