The basic principle of justice has to be, justice for all. We in Pakistan still facing myriad of issues relating to a flawless dispensation of justice to masses with out any discrimination, despite the fact that we fought for a free judiciary for over one year. It makes one feel absolutely dejected to see masses still crying for justice after all that uproar and excitement. When one sees long lines of pension seekers trying to get what is their right, as something given as bounty, women beaten up, thrown acid on, raped, maimed and thrown naked to the streets, when one sees minority communities living under severest of distress, when one sees lower judicial set up as vultures ready to eat these poor people, one is inclined to disbelief all the rhetoric of free judiciary.
At the end of the day, dispensation of justice begins from acknowledging an act as crime. If domestic violence is not even considered a punishable crime, how can one expect to get redress from the system? When acid throwing is not listed in the penal code as a form of offence, how one can even hope for it to be punishable? And when even some of these crimes against humanity are listed as crimes, our rotten system just refuses to acknowledge that it ever happened. In our part of the world, the basic step for getting justice is registering it as crime in a police station. The registration document is called, First Information report, commonly known as FIR. Would you believe that despite all what we have done to get free judiciary with an inspiration of making it possible for masses to access justice with equality, it is still not possible for an average middle class urban family to get a complaint registered with the police.
In one instance, the FIR could not be registered for the rape of a young girl in Bahawalpur till the time she gave birth to a baby girl. Her case still lingers in one of the courts, after ninth birthday of her child. I wonder what the child would be called by our elitist intelligentsia – a love child?
Amidst all this, it was pleasant to hear that Jhumuri got her FIR registered in first attempt and without going to the police station. She just sent her written complaint, and the custodians of law came into motion. It happened in a local police station at Astarang in Orissa’s Puri district of India. Jhumuri fears for the life of her son, by a jealous former husband of hers. She then, with the help of neighborhood responsible citizens, lodged a written complaint with the police station. ”We have registered a case under Section 363 (kidnapping), Section 366(abducting for slavery) and Section 307 (attempt to murder) of Indian Penal Code (IPC). We are trying to give protection to the baby. . .” inspector-in-charge of Astarang police station, Mr Satindra Kumar Das, is quoted as saying according to The Telegraph, India.
The only thing that makes this news item unique is the fact the complainant was a female monkey! Yes, Jhumuri is a female monkey who registered a complaint against her former husband, through local residents. Jhumuri charged her “former husband”, a male monkey called Raja, with attempting to kill her three-month-old baby Kuna. She put the imprint of her tail end on the one-page complaint, written in Oriya by the local people, The Telegraph says. Raja was found to have become jealous of the baby monkey and tried to kill it several times. But her mother was able to abort all such attempts, with the help of the local people. When the locals felt that the simian kid faced a real threat to its life from the band leader, they decided to seek help from the police to drive out the rogue monkey. According to Mr Das, about a dozen monkeys led by Raja have been camping in the Astarang market area for the last few days. They have been provided with food by local businessmen and animal lovers.
Jhumuri is happy that she got justice in first attempt. Women of Pakistan envy this Indian monkey and long for justice, with bills on domestic violence and sexual harassment still pending before the Parliament.
