Can a regressive social framework obstruct justice?

As a 13 year old in 2008, one particular headline in The Hindu caught my attention. It involved a girl
around my age in Noida being murdered in safe quarters of her home and so was the domestic help of
the household. A week back the supposed convicts of one rail of the case were acquitted on benefit of
doubt. Be it years of media glare, interviews of the stakeholders, monstrous time-consuming legal
proceedings, books and movies on the case reaching target audience, making business, what more,
justice has not been served. But baseless insinuations and allegations are being thrown by a repressed
social framework which jumps to quick conclusions. Every event reported in the due course of years
has been a sequence of events produced by legal enforcement agencies. While the mere horsepower of
a weapon which can lead to a cranial injury has been a lead in this case, the murder weapon is still
unaccounted for. Avirook Sen's book mocks how the term 'Sleepover' which is a common social
activity of any teen's average day has been miscomprehended as debauchery and the fact- sequence
missing in the camera is a simple habitual act which anyone would do if the photo is not clear or
appealing. Also the fact, the doctor who performed the autopsy of the girl has never before exercised
so on a woman's body beforehand. One piece of evidence which is not discussed much by a repressed
social framework that places taboo on discussing so, is the doctor who in his statement is unsure
misinterpreting a primal biological function of a woman as a possible evidence leads us to
speculating the regression on the society as a package, where taboos are not disturbed even in
domains of science which is disturbing and an obstruction to justice at large. During the proceedings,
the Talwars were often accused as having no remorse or emotions. Being strong after a tragedy is no
crime and taking a leaf out of Camus's Stranger manipulating emotions as a tool to judge and prove as
circumstantial evidence is a misnomer. Has the curiosity of the case turned every rational interpreter
to Poirots and Marples with imaginary golf clubs, unproven words of the mouth, and unsubstantiated
evidence except the conjecture that a pair of convicts are medicos be sufficient for accusing them. A
strong alibi by word of mouth could satisfy to acquit another rail of possible convicts on a ground of
doubt and a vast majority supporting the claim for its anti-snobbish proletarian glorification and a
possible support to a fabricated sequel of events which is convenient to believe, profound with
attractive words such as 'moral policing' , 'horror killing' and convict the parents involved, thereby
letting possible inhuman convicts free, and murdering the character of the girl post her death long
after she is no more. Even after the media screaming left and right with allegations and debates, the
Talwars' recent interview on 27 October show their exasperation after a large course of proceedings.
May be they were acquitted right, after being victims of vindication of their already huge tragedy
which they fought hard to overcome and this was 'enough is enough' for them and they stopped
fighting for their lost child out of mere exhilaration of the baseless allegations being thrown at her and
them and finally decided to do something which they could do in her memories, productive to the
society. And, Justice to Aarushi, is still at large as is justice to so many obscure faces which didn't
gain significance as this case did but yet is trampled by backwardness and stomping, and a dense
demographic majority growing more conscious and cynical by the day.

-Dhivyalakshmy C R (dhivya1995@gmail.com)