This is the last day of my life as a citizen of my country, as a human being and as the Law Minister of this country. Finally, I have achieved my goal of life. It took me 35 years to remove the termite that was eating my country for last 7 decades. It had almost hollowed the whole country, its intellect, its brain and the machinery & mechanism that was driving it. Day before yesterday night I had a private meeting with the Prime Minister that lasted till dawn, though it was not anticipated by him earlier. It was my story that shattered him and finally he had to get convinced what I wanted him to believe and execute.
Yesterday morning my case was sent to a special court by the order of President. I did not opt for any defense counsel. I accepted both the serious charges that were put against me by the Prime Minister - rape and murder. Being a serious crime, Court ordered to hang me till death and the date for that is tomorrow. Had I not gone to Prime Minister and told him my story, I would have happily carried on with my job without any trouble. But I decided 35 years back when I contested in my first elections of the country that some day I would become powerful enough to change some laws of my country.
One and a half years back I became the law minister of this country. It was not easy to change the laws specially those which were intentionally formed to hide and shelter politically and financially powerful stream of the country. I had to struggle a lot to finally get the law amended that for heinous crimes an underage will not be treated as a juvenile and in the court of law he will be given the same treatment and punishment as any adult who had committed that crime. Crimes like murder, rape, terrorism etc. should never come under Juvenile Justice Act as the mind who can think and act on such crimes should never be given any kind of leverages of age, caste, religion or anything for that sake.So the Juvenile law amended last week and signed by the President clearly says no heinous crime will come under the shelter of Juvenile. It will not matter whether the criminal is 14, 16, 20 or 80 years of age in case of murder, rape, terrorism or similar kind of acts.
Once this law got amended, signed by the President and implemented, I was relaxed as I have achieved my target. Now only one thing was left - to punish myself for the crime I made in my teenage even though I was not the real culprit for the first one for which I was sent to Juvenile Home for a year that was reduced to 6 months because of my tremendously sober nature and behavior.
In my childhood, I was found in a garbage box by Ramaiya who was serving in the kitchen of the then Law Minister Brijender Singh. Ramaiya decided to adopt me and treat me as his own child as the couple married for last 6 years had no child. When I grew a little to the age of 5, I started going to the house of Brijender Singh with Ramaiya. Brijender Singh never objected my going to his residence and office. When I was 15 years of age, it was Brijender Singh's 5 consecutive election that he was planning to win in a row. But this time he had a fear of losing against his rival Sukhvinder who had a cleaner picture in public.
Despite Brijender's warning, Sukhvinder refused to withdraw his nomination against Brijender for which he had to pay in a big way. Sukhvinder's daughter was raped and I got caught early morning with two witnesses claiming I was the culprit. I was declared as a rapist with no fault of mine but the cue steered by Brijender. I was sent to Juvenile for a year for this crime. After a couple of months I got to know that the actual crime was done by Brijender and Ramaiya. Brijender had convinced Ramaiya to get me caught in this crime as the law is so weak that I will be sent to Juvenile for a year and that is it. The same was acted upon.
So my first crime that was imposed on me had not even an iota of my involvement in it. But I was declared as a rapist. Though I was held for one year, after 6 months I was relieved because of my good behavior. Ramaiya and Brijender were not aware about it. I murdered both of them the same night.
I was again caught and sent to Juvenile for 2 years. After 2 years I moved to another city, changed my identity, built up my reputation and seriously got engaged in social welfare. It was during that time that I decided to create a new chapter in the weak law structure of my country. Finally after winning a series of elections, I became the Law Minister of my country, got the relevant law amended. And after that convinced Prime Minister that I committed a crime of murder for which I must be punished. And that is how - tomorrow is my last day.
Yesterday morning my case was sent to a special court by the order of President. I did not opt for any defense counsel. I accepted both the serious charges that were put against me by the Prime Minister - rape and murder. Being a serious crime, Court ordered to hang me till death and the date for that is tomorrow. Had I not gone to Prime Minister and told him my story, I would have happily carried on with my job without any trouble. But I decided 35 years back when I contested in my first elections of the country that some day I would become powerful enough to change some laws of my country.
One and a half years back I became the law minister of this country. It was not easy to change the laws specially those which were intentionally formed to hide and shelter politically and financially powerful stream of the country. I had to struggle a lot to finally get the law amended that for heinous crimes an underage will not be treated as a juvenile and in the court of law he will be given the same treatment and punishment as any adult who had committed that crime. Crimes like murder, rape, terrorism etc. should never come under Juvenile Justice Act as the mind who can think and act on such crimes should never be given any kind of leverages of age, caste, religion or anything for that sake.So the Juvenile law amended last week and signed by the President clearly says no heinous crime will come under the shelter of Juvenile. It will not matter whether the criminal is 14, 16, 20 or 80 years of age in case of murder, rape, terrorism or similar kind of acts.
Once this law got amended, signed by the President and implemented, I was relaxed as I have achieved my target. Now only one thing was left - to punish myself for the crime I made in my teenage even though I was not the real culprit for the first one for which I was sent to Juvenile Home for a year that was reduced to 6 months because of my tremendously sober nature and behavior.
In my childhood, I was found in a garbage box by Ramaiya who was serving in the kitchen of the then Law Minister Brijender Singh. Ramaiya decided to adopt me and treat me as his own child as the couple married for last 6 years had no child. When I grew a little to the age of 5, I started going to the house of Brijender Singh with Ramaiya. Brijender Singh never objected my going to his residence and office. When I was 15 years of age, it was Brijender Singh's 5 consecutive election that he was planning to win in a row. But this time he had a fear of losing against his rival Sukhvinder who had a cleaner picture in public.
Despite Brijender's warning, Sukhvinder refused to withdraw his nomination against Brijender for which he had to pay in a big way. Sukhvinder's daughter was raped and I got caught early morning with two witnesses claiming I was the culprit. I was declared as a rapist with no fault of mine but the cue steered by Brijender. I was sent to Juvenile for a year for this crime. After a couple of months I got to know that the actual crime was done by Brijender and Ramaiya. Brijender had convinced Ramaiya to get me caught in this crime as the law is so weak that I will be sent to Juvenile for a year and that is it. The same was acted upon.
So my first crime that was imposed on me had not even an iota of my involvement in it. But I was declared as a rapist. Though I was held for one year, after 6 months I was relieved because of my good behavior. Ramaiya and Brijender were not aware about it. I murdered both of them the same night.
I was again caught and sent to Juvenile for 2 years. After 2 years I moved to another city, changed my identity, built up my reputation and seriously got engaged in social welfare. It was during that time that I decided to create a new chapter in the weak law structure of my country. Finally after winning a series of elections, I became the Law Minister of my country, got the relevant law amended. And after that convinced Prime Minister that I committed a crime of murder for which I must be punished. And that is how - tomorrow is my last day.
But I am happy that I have been able to change to law of this country to treat a Juvenile rapist as an adult and punish him and if proven, should be hanged.
Beautifully written. It has a fairy tale feel to it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Datta !
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