Ravana in Courts.

First of a three part series..

The case is quite popular and has received media attention from the start. Fifteen long years have passed . It is so well known that even the villagers who have never known what a television is have an opinion in this case. Today is the judgment day for the prime accused,Ravana.

The serious nature of the allegations against the accused ,if found guilty will lead to capital punishment. Is he guilty or not is the question.

The clock struck 9 and the judge was ready to deliver the judgment. " The accused ,Ravana has been found guilty under section 364 ,for kidnapping Sita;section 509 for harassing her and is found guilty of molesting and raping countless women in his Lanka. Seeing the nature of the crime, this is classified as a the rarest of the rare cases and he is to be hanged " the judge continued "Since he has been born with 10 heads , he is to be hanged 10 times until death."

The vigilant news media,at once beamed the judgment ant the millions of people came to know about it in no time. There was joy every where. At last, Dharma prevailed and the guilty has been rightly led to the gallows. There were to be special discussion and debates in all the primary news channels about the nature of the judgment and how could this affect future crime scenario.

People were not so interested in a settled case so the channels wanted something interesting and one of them started a program should Ravana be hanged at all ? The luminaries in the discussion were a representative from The Human Rights Commission(HRC) , a founder of an NGO which is against capital punishment and a retired army officer who fought in the Indo-China war.

The anchor started right away. " The land mark judgment has been delivered and every body is happy but there are many questions that are been left unanswered. Are we a civilized nation after awarding capital punishment? Should we kill somebody at present for his mindless action in the past? Ravana being a asura who are a minority in Bharatha Varsha won't it hurt the sentiments of the minority especially when Shiva Rathri is coming which is fifteen day pompous celebration for them? To answer such difficult question we have invited the experts and we would be very happy even if one of the questions will be answered."

The representative from HRC picked up from there. "Ravana though has committed many crimes which are not proven for which i cannot give a judgment being an impartial observer would like to talk only about the case relating to Sita. One thing is clear, he never raped her.. He kidnapped her but it was under Sita's will Sita very well knew danger is wrought on her if she crosses the Lakshman rekha but still she has done it which implies she actually went with Ravana according to her will. Sita we have to note is not a modern woman,she doesn't have a goal in her life and many times she has publicly stated she doesn't need freedom or respect and serving Rama is all that she wants to do in her life. This sort of behavior doesn't go well in our society and no wonder most of the women are against her. Ravana is a man and it is natural for a man to get attracted to other women. A woman like Sita never needed the protection of State and she has always put her husband above state and society,which shows her indifference to the human society. “

“The countless women he has been charged with rape, we have to note have never said publicly any thing against Ravana. We just went along with the word of Hanuman who supposedly visited his palace in search of Sita,Why he did not bring her then and there speaks volumes whether he really visited her. In spite of all this , Ravana emotionally and physically tortured Sita for 14 years for which he deserves punishment but not capital punishment.”

The retired army officer continued. “I have seen enough blood shed in the wars i participated and one thing i can confirm is taking aways somebody's life doesn't change anything. Life is precious ,even if it is our enemy's. I have always been against capital punishment and i even submitted a memorandum to the government to look into the capital punishment. Many developed nations scrapped that law but some how we still linger on to the colonial days of judgment where every freedom fighter was hanged to death.”

The famous NGO founder thundered. “Today judiciary may have won,but humanity has been defeated. There is no shred of doubt that Ravana tortured Sita but the judiciary should look for the common good when delivering justice. What justice is this which will only hurt the 'sentiments' of the people. He is the sole leader of their group and such excessive punishing statement doesn't agur well for the nation especially during their festival time. The Nation will be set on fire.”

In the mean time the results for the question of the day “Should Ravana be hanged?” came. 87% of the people said yes. The results seems to be slightly skewed in favor of Rama and against Ravana but that should not be taken as the voice of the people since we know more then 60% of the people who watch television don't respond to such question and such people for whom this doesn't interest we can safely say that they support Ravana, if not why won't they respond? So doing some petty calculations we can say that 35% of the people say Ravana has to be hanged while the rest 65% say no he shouldn't be. The viewers also support Ravana.

The army officer responded. “Yes, that is the expected reaction from the common people. A common Indian is more concerned with food and tomorrow ,then such petty trials .A common man is a humanitarian. The feeling of humanity runs through all of us which is natural. Here we also have to consider the work Ravana has done for his people. The ones that lived under the ground , he brought them and put them in a golden city. He devised rules and regulations for a peaceful society among his tribe. He has brought universal respect for his people. The demise of such a leader will only lead to civil war in this country which has never been fair to the minorities.”

The debate stopped for that day and the next day some of the political party leaders went to consolidate Ravana and they too echoed the same opinions of yesterday's debate. They filed a mercy petition with the president and were eagerly awaiting the president's signature on that.

“What's the point in hanging him? I see it clearly now” said on of the auto drivers who have all seen yesterday's debate.
“Sita is back with her husband. The other women are happy in Ravana's palace .Why should we now try to kill poor Ravana for his past actions? I hope the president pardons him.”

All the political parties where up against the judgment and were one with the government in this matter. Soon enough ,Ravana was pardoned and he was awarded five years rigorous punishment. Since Ravana spent fifteen years already in jail, he was declared to have served his sentence and for every one year excess he has spent he received a compensation package of one crore rupees. In all he was set free and was loaded with ten crore rupees for the humiliation he had to suffer for 10 extra long years.

Seeing this,Sita could not bear “ But he has made me suffer for years who is going to compensate
me for that? Does giving money nullify the crime?He has killed thousands of people in building the golden city now showing that Lanka as a marvel of development they have set him free. Oh!! my Lord i am burning ”,saying this she fell on the feet of Rama for justice.

Rama decided his next course of action.

To be continued...