The Accused: Victim is the accused!

The recent verdict of death sentence by the Fast Track court in Delhi slapped on the rapists brings back memories of this 1988 film The Accused. The situation seems somewhat similar, except that the real incident that inspired this film had a victim who survived the gang rape and fought till the end in the court and ensure that the rapists got their punishment, unlike the Delhi gang rape victim who succumbed to her gruesome injuries.

Director: Jonathan Kaplan

Film Clip

The film brings forth many issues related to legal system that handles rape cases. It is not easy at all for a rape victim to narrate her horror stories in the court, especially when the other party (the accused) is out to insensitively destroy her. That is exactly what happens to Sarah Tobias when the lawyer of the accused asks her whether ‘she is sure who were witnessing her being raped at a time when there was such a big noise in the bar’. As though that was highly important when the issue at hand was violence against a hapless victim!

The legal system all over the world has a history of being very insensitive to the victims. And India is no exception. And when the perpetrators of crime are powerful and influential, they can even buy the judges and what you have is just a travesty of justice. But for public outcry, even the Delhi rape case too would have turned out to be just another ‘incident’. While there are discussions whether death sentence to rapists would bring down the rate of crime in the country, the protagonist of the film Sarah Tobias sets the standards for the victims and for all those who care not to give up fighting till the end for justice. Jodie Foster as the rape victim does justice to her character. The title The Accused is indeed a misnomer as it actually refers to the victim who is made to look like an accused.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ