Felony and Lenity

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing well.

I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five.

-Steven Wright

Before we start, want you to keep this word in mind “Clemency” simply meaning mercy or leniency.

In this blog:

•     The recent brutal gang rape and murder in Hyderabad India and its after math.

•      The Rape accused in the 2015 Delhi Nirbhaya case commenting about Delhi pollution and his application for clemency to the honourable  president of India.

1   .  What happened in Hyderabad? On the 27 of November 2019.

A brutal rape and murder of a 26-year-old veterinary doctor in the wee hours by four miscreants posing to help her when she was back where she had parked her vehicle and noticed it had a flat tire.

This case is considered one of the brutal cases after the infamous Nirbaya case in Delhi.

I could post the whole story, which is going on in the media, but, everyone would have read and heard about it all over the media that is not my intention.

The summary of what happened is, a lady late in her twenties was on her way back home   noticed her vehicle Tyre was punctured and was lured by some lorry drivers who offered to fix her vehicle eventually assaulting her sexually, murdered her and burnt her!

What a sad state of affairs in India, are we in such a society that we can’t protect the dignity and safety of our women! Whom we worship as goddesses of different forms!

A famous Sanskrit quote:

"Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, 

yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah "

 This famous shloka from Manusmruthi which means: where Women are honoured, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonoured, all action no matter how noble remains unfruitful.

This was the culture our elders had thought us, but I don’t know why everything contradictory is happening in India.

I sincerely do not believe by comparing the statistics of other country and feeling happy that we are better off, we should think about setting up an example not by comparing with others.

This incident took a different turn when police encountered the accused just a week after during a normal crime reconstruction exercise, when the accused tried to escape and also shoot at the police, in retaliation the police exterminated them!

While the whole country has different opinions about this, at one hand people saying it was a perfect thing what they have done, on the other side people saying that judicial procedure should have taken place! So that the accused could have their say.

Personally, if the people who were shot down were the real perpetrators of the crime, then they deserve to die! There is an enquiry going on the encounter hope the police come out clean.

2. The Delhi Nirbaya case: Clemency!

I was sipping my coffee one winter morning last week; I was amazed to read that the accused Akshay Kumar was seeking clemency!

One of the four men convicted in the 2012 Nirbaya rape and murder case has asked the Supreme Court to spare him the death penalty since life in Delhi is by default getting “short” due to air and water pollution. No, you read that right. This absurd argument finds a mention in a plea filed by Akshay Singh Thakur requesting the Supreme Court to review his conviction in the Nirbaya rape and murder case.

Akshay Singh Thakur -- the lone convict not to have filed a review plea -- has filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of his conviction in the Nirbaya rape and murder case. The petition brings up points of law, argues that Akshay was incorrectly convicted and talks about capital punishment which is abolished in various countries.

At one point, Akshay’s review petition inexplicably brings up Delhi’s air quality. “... It is important to pertain here that Air Quality of Delhi NCR ( National Captial region)  and the metro city is burst and as a gas chamber... the water of Delhi NCR and the metro city is also full of poison... Everyone is aware of what is happening in Delhi NCR concerning water and air,” the petition says before asking a simple question.

“Life is short too short, then why the death penalty? [sic]"  

Courtesy: (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/nirbhaya-rape-murder-akshay-singh-thakur-supreme-court-review-delhi-air-water-pollution-1627071-2019-12-10)

Can you believe a rape accused who has lost all his legal means to defend himself can talk like this!

Now about the clemency: We have a supreme court in India which is considered the highest body of the judiciary, but the accused still has a chance to apply to the president of India to grant him life imprisonment instead of hanging till death!

The law in India: Articles 72 and 161 of the Constitution

Grant of pardon wipes off the guilt of accused and brings him to the original position of innocence as if he had never committed the offence for which he was charged. Under Indian law, the President of India and the Governors of States have been given the power to grant pardons, reprieves, respites or remissions of punishment or to suspend, remit or commute the sentence. The law governing the grant of pardon is contained in Articles 72 and 161 of the Constitution. 

(courtesy: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/administrative-law/power-to-pardon-an-analysis-law-essays.php)

This law is there only for the innocent who are framed wrongly, not for a convicted person who has committed such a brutal crime that humanity can't even imagine.

I strongly feel there should be a constitutional amendment to be made in this regard.

The provision should only be awarded for the accused who are actually innocent. I urge the honourable president of India to reject the petition at the earliest and order the accused to face the gallows.

The purpose of the law is to protect its people, and people created the law; therefore, corrections should be made when the law is not serving its purpose!

 

Courtesy: Google images

  

We talk about law, evidence, forensic study, proving who is guilty and the terms of the punishment, we should also think about the poor souls who were cut short of their lives and were used as a material forgetting all human values, and the pain they went through, all of their life ambitions just smashed because of such thugs, is not unfair?

Please let me know your comments on this post.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Helios.

The Living Room Rug

Hello Readers

Hope you all are doing well.

A Discussion should start from family, travel with your friends, exchange with the great minds end with the goal that you started it for!

-Anonymous

Communication is an essential tool in our lives, and it will remain to be for many more years no matter by what means, that is what keeps the world alive.

Discussions a subpart of the communication process is when a group of people sit together start chatting about a topic sometimes with an official purpose and in other cases, just a casual, informal discussion.

When the discussions happen, and in a proactive and hopefully with intellectual participants, you come out with some conclusions sometimes brilliant solutions to everyday life problems which can turn things around.

Such conversations and discussions with friends and family are called a living room rug confab.

Even though you do not see this listed as an official phrase list in the eminent dictionaries available in the world, it is a well-known slang or a degree of comparison which is referred to in certain situations.

For instance you, a working professional is talking to a school kid who feels waste management and keeping the city clean is not a such a mammoth task! The latter would respond to him saying “Hey kid this is not a lesson in your class that you study and forget this is practical life! And tend to end this conversation by quoting “this is not a living room rug confab! We need to put it to action.”

But time and again in history, there are legitimate success stories of people turning such symposium into something exciting and mind-blowing that has brought a change in the world we live in.

First in the list of such greatest stories is the formation of the Silicon Valley itself! That was the 60s in the U.S. where young engineers all graduated from colleges were doing garage experiments in electronics with all the P-N-P and the N-P-N transistors and eureka! You see some contemporary inventions like the silicon chip the Integrated circuits (I.C.) and many more gizmos which shook the world and opened up the plethora of computing and information technology possible.

Apple Inc. originated from a humble garage in Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, two inventors Steve Jobs and his friend Steve Wozniak decided to build a computer when there was nothing called a computer market which existed.

Imagine all the conversations and the discussions they would have undergone, the result of which is, today folks like us standing in long logjams to buy their products irrespective of the price!

That is the price we are paying for the Awe effect! The marvel created in our minds which are the result of the important discussions and the work of the inventions, beautiful isn't?

Similarly, Google Inc., no need to tell more about this one! Google is there in our lives, or I can definitely take the liberty and say our lives move in sync with Google! Again a groupthink of two geniuses Larry Page and Eric Schmidt in Menlo Park, California, U.S. Today Google has changed the world!

 We fly around the world only because of the wright brothers who picked on some aeronautical events that happened in the late 1800s’ I quote from: Crouch 2003, Chapter 10, "The Year of the Flying Machine" and Chapter 11, "Octave Chanute".

“1896 brought three important aeronautical events. In May, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley successfully flew an unmanned steam-powered fixed-wing model aircraft.

In mid-year, Chicago engineer and aviation authority Octave Chanute brought together several men who tested various types of gliders over the sand dunes along the shore of Lake Michigan. In August, Lilienthal was killed in the plunge of his glider. These events lodged in the minds of the brothers, especially Lilienthal’s death.

 The Wright brothers later cited his death as the point when their serious interest in flight research began. Wilbur said, “Lilienthal was without question the greatest of the precursors, and the world owes him a great debt.” In May 1899 Wilbur wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution requesting information and publications about aeronautics.

 Drawing on the work of Sir George Cayley, Chanute, Lilienthal, Leonardo da Vinci, and Langley, they began their mechanical, aeronautical experimentation that year.”

Well, again, a great example of what can productive discussions and research result, just think those jubilant moments the Wright brothers have given this world.

There are numerous and even more astounding examples all around the world. I just picked a few pinnacles from this century.

Courtesy Google images 

So discussions are good at any point of your life, at any level personal or professional.

Remember to start a conversation with anyone of your choice if you have an idea and build on it, who knows it may unwrap a new chapter in your life and may take you places!

A Discussion should start from family, travel with your friends, exchange with the great minds end with the goal that you started it for!

-Anonymous

There are many of these conversations that just fade away limited to your living rooms, let’s try to bring it out of the living room on to the mainstream because ideas do not pop up in everyone's mind, maybe you are one among the chosen ones! Small puddles create a stream that will lead you to a brine.

Thanks a lot for your time

Have a good week ahead.

Helios.