Delhi guy raped, but he has no chance at justice thanks to Section 377

Rape has unfortunately become so commonplace in India that it even fails to shock us anymore. But what happens when a rape victim is unable to even file a case against the perpetrator of the crime, because a country’s law prohibits the victim from doing so?

This might sound bizzare at the first glance since the Indian Penal Code does list rape as a heinous crime, but what it considers a crime alongside is homosexuality under its infamous and archaic Section 377. This is exactly what happened in a conversation initiated by Arnav Barbaad on his facebook page.

Arnav started a discussion about how when in India gay men are raped they cannot approach the law-enforcers for help due to none other than Section 377, which prohibits ‘unnatural sex’. Arnav posted screenshots of his conversation with his gay friend from Delhi who was drugged and raped in India but could not go to the police due to fear of them pressing charges on him instead.

Here is the facebook post:

Arnav’s account of his friend’s ordeal is thought provoking and raises an important question about how sodomization could become difficult to deal with in the presence of a law such as Section 377. The law against homosexuality in India is such that even consensual sex between two men is illegal, and this complicates matters further when a man gets raped.

Here are the screenshots of the conversation:

 

It is probably high time we re-think our laws and ensure they are made to protect citizens and not to instead put them in such harrowing situations.