"Innocent until proven guilty", is a cardinal principle in the system of justice. But with sexual assault cases, what really follows is "guilty until proven innocent".
Now the former is a logical thing to say. While making an accusation, the burden of proof must always lie with the accuser. Not the one who's accused. After all, making accusations is an easier affair. And it's free. But for the person who's accused (of something like sexual assault), it's not easy. And it's certainly not free. Especially if he/she's innocent.
And it's probably due to the obviousness of "innocent until proven guilty", that it's been a part of the human conditioning for time immemorial. It's been so in the Roman Law since sixth century. It's also written in the Islamic Hadith, Talmud, and even in the ancient Hindu Vedic text, in which Naarad Muni says, "A trial without proper consideration may let go the thieves and convict an innocent as in the case of Rishi Maandavy".
But something is happening off late which is reversing the flow of the river. In today's time, somebody can drop a sexual assault allegation like a joke and ruin the other person's life forever. Why? Because when it comes to cases like these, the society organises itself to believe that the accusing woman is in fact the victim, and the accused man is definitely the deviant. The "predator". In some cases, it goes on till the man takes on the enormous burden of proving himself innocent in the eyes of the law. But even after he's successfully acquitted of all charges, he remains someone who was "once accused" of being a pervert. That's his legacy. Forever. Even if he was once was a "great" person.
On the other side of the table, what's going on is clear extortion. There was a person named Nisha Sharma who filed a dowry case in 2003. She got so famous in the media back then that none other than Oprah Winfrey called her for an interview at the time. She became a true global superstar. The "face of justice". What happened next? After 10 long years, it was proved that the case was total BS, and actually all Nisha wanted to do was escape the marriage and elope with her lover. The guy and his family were ruined. For a long time, they endured great shame. But it's still a happy story because after winning the case, the guy got a 15 minute interview on TV in which he said, "I'm finally free". He was broke, and socially scarred. But who cares about that.
Closer to home, a friend of mine recently got married. A real sweet guy who's never hurt a fly. But five days after his wedding, he got a Sexual Assault case filed against him by the girl who's asking for 25 Lakhs to withdraw it. Now the guy feels like he's been fucked by a train, but just to avoid agony on his widowed mother, he's paying. This is despite everyone, including the girl, knowing that it's all BS. It's daylight robbery, nothing else.
As a society, what are we doing about this new "business model"? Tomorrow it could be you. What would you do?
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