HYDERABAD: The suffering that men undergo when they are falsely charged in rape and dowry cases is the central theme of a documentary film, ‘India’s sons: A tale of false rape case survivors’, which was released on www.indiassons.com on Saturday.
The release was timed for the the International Men’s Day, observed on November 19 every year. The documentary aims to start a dialogue over misuse of rape laws and reveal “the unsaid truth” behind India's tag of a rape capital.
Several topics like consensual sex being labelled as rape by women to collect money and gain false sympathy and registering false dowry cases were debated in an online conference to mark the day.
The conference was addressed by the docu directors Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj and Neeraj Kumar, producer Shonee Kapoor and and actor Pooja Bedi along with false rape case survivors, whose stories are shown in the film.
One of the victims, Prince Garg, spoke about how he spent five years in jail on a false charge of rape before he was acquitted. Even though he had CCTV footage that showed that he was miles away at the time of the reported incident, his pleas fell on deaf ears. He was just 18 years old when he was jailed and could not fulfill his dream of becoming a CA. He said, “I cannot even imagine starting my career again as I am not accepted in society, given the rapist tag” said Prince.
Bhardwaj said that International Women’s Day is celebrated with enthusiasm but Men’s Day is not even considered. She added that it is majorly because of print media that such false cases on men are taken seriously. She added that even though the documentary was appreciated by many big OTT platforms, they said that they would not be releasing it as it lacked content strategy.
Shonee Kapoor said that men falsely accused as rapist is a taboo in itself. Neeraj Kumar added that men could not always be wrong, but they are not accepted by society.
Pooja Bedi spoke about how the rights of men are being overlooked, laws are being misused against innocent men and how reporting is biased. To support her statement she said “you cannot name the woman who is accusing a man but the man’s name and photo are shown. Not much of action is taken against women who register false rape or dowry cases,” she said.
Other cases that were discussed were about how Amitabh Thakur, a former IPS officer, who along with his wife were falsely implicated in rape cases due to political vendetta. It took them three years to prove their innocence.
Another case was discussed by Nitin Bharti, brother of Arvind Bharti, who ended his life in December 2017 leaving a 16-page suicide note. He first spent eight years fighting a false dowry case filed by his wife Richa, who then slapped a false rape case after their divorce. His last words in the note were “I am ending life first due to a blind system that listens only to women and secondly because of my ex-wife Richa.”
