Justice for Her: Unmasking the Monsters of Rape - PART 3
TRUE TALKS 2nd Edition
Justice for Her: Unmasking the Monsters of Rape - PART 3
Reader discretion is advised.
Upon continuing further from part 2 of blog....
The timeline continues from 29th May, 2024 continuing ahead in the incident. Victim i.e. Shreya Jain confronts her parents in month-end of August i.e. on 24th of August, 2024; where the parents along-with the victim comes to one of hospital in Nerul itself on the very next day i.e on 25th August, 2024 for the treatment and besides the treatment, her parents seeks for justice. Her parents wants to file a complaint against Sagar Jain, Akshat Shah, college's professor & principal. But since Shreya Jain had confronted too late, Medical team can't get the required DNA Samples to prove them and complaint can be filed against college's professor & principal, but here also since the college lacks CCTVs' inside the college as well as inside the professor's cabin. There is no valid proof against them hence filing a complaint on victim's statement against them could backfire and even if both of them are arrested they can be out on bail.
Now question arises that why does DNA samples are not considered to be valid and can't we just take action against such culprits on just victim's statement. So the answer is here.
1. DNA samples are only valid and strong enough if it has been reported within 24-72 hours of rape. Biological evidence like semen, saliva, or epithelial cells is most reliably detectable within 24–72 hours of the incident. After that, the chances drop sharply due to washing, natural degradation, and daily activities.
2. Just victim's statement isn't enough as sometimes, some female just play victim's card i.e. put false allegation upon opponents. Hence to avoid any discrepancy, Law seeks proper witnesses and investigations.
Now talking about some basics, so you can understand about this case further:
1. In India, forensic samples in rape cases can be collected within 72 hours, but the sooner the better.
2. Best practice window: Biological evidence like semen, saliva or epithelial cells is most reliably detectable within 24-72 hours of the incident. After that the chances drop sharply due to washing, natural degradation & daily activities.
3. Law v/s Medical: Legally, Section 164A CrPC only says the examination should be done "without any delay" ideally within 24 hours. But forensic science acknowledges that usable DNA & injury documentation can still be possible up to 72 hours, sometimes longer in special cases (e.g., in children OR if no washing/clothing change occurred.)
4. Types of evidence:
a. Vaginal/anal swabs: Best <24 hours, possible up to 72 hours.
b. Oral swabs: <6 hours, rarely beyond 24 hours.
c. Blood/urine (for drugs, alcohol): Best <24-48 hours.
d. Clothing, hair, skin scrapings: May be useful for days or weeks if preserved properly.
5. Chain of custody: Even if 72 hours have passed, doctors can still collect samples because injuries & bruises may be documented, trace evidence like hair/fibers may remain & survivors may have delayed reporting for many valid reasons.
Bottom line is that, while the golden period for medical analysis is within 24 hours, Indian Medico-Legal protocols allow & encourage the collection of evidence up to 72 hours, so nothing potentially useful is lost. But all this methodologies are only possible if its is reported within 24-72 hours of the incident.
As of now, you have understood about the basics of our Indian Medico-Legal protocols. Moving further in this Shreya Jain's Scenario.
In Shreya Jain's Scenario: Rape case have been reported after around 5-6 months of the actual incident taken placed. Now, understanding basics of our Indian Medico-Legal Cases if reported after 5-6 months: If a rape case is reported after 6 months, the medical analysis can be still done but the focus shifts from recovering biological evidences to injury scars documentation (if still available), psychological assessment & corroborative forensic evidence.
Here is how it works:
1. Why Samples may not be useful after 6 months?
a. Biological evidence like semen, saliva or DNA from the body is almost always gone.
b. Internal injuries heals within weeks, so physical findings are usually absent by this time.
c. Drug or alcohol traces (for spiking cases) disappear from blood or urine within hours or days.
2. What can be still be examined?
Even months later, Medico-Legal exams can help in ways other than DNA recovery like:
a. Old injury scars: Some injuries (e.g., deep tears, burns, healed fractures) can leave permanent or semi-permanent signs that may support the account.
b. Hymenal changes (in certain cases): In prepubertal girls or some adults, specific old tears may remain visible, but these are not conclusive proof of rape.
c. Clothing evidence: If clothing from time of incident was preserved in an unwashed state, biological traces may still be recovered & DNA tested even years later.
d. Psychological assessment: Mental health evaluation may document trauma symptoms consistent with sexual assault, which can support testimony.
e. Corroborative records: Past medical visits, counselling records, messages, phone location data, or witness statements may align with the survivor's account.
3. Legal perspective in India:
a. No statute of limitation for prosecuting rape under IPC, a complaint can be filed anytime even after years later.
b. The absence of physical evidence does not invalidate a case, survivor's testimony can form the sole basis for conviction only if court finds it credible.
c. Courts understand delaying of report due to fear, stigma or threat.
4. Practical outcomes: In a 5-6 months old case, medical analysis cannot prove or disprove rape on its own, but it may:
a. Support parts of the survivor's version.
b. Rule out or confirm certain injuries.
c. Strengthen the case when combined with digital, documentary, witness evidence & more strengthens via practical evidence the whole incident as narrated by the survivor.
So, now where she (victim and her parents) arrived, the senior consultant who was examining all the patients came across this case and since none of the medical sample he can take as proofs, etc. He asked them to take help from one of the student name Meet Gandhi who was studying over there in same college, this student was also partly working for one of the Government of India prestigious agency, but he was working in the agency in Cyber Department. But upon consultation of the doctor, Victim's parent met with that guy and narrated him the whole incident, where on that he disagreed by saying that this case doesn't comes under his department and hence he can't take the case. Upon frequent requests of victim's parents, next day Meet agrees to take this case, but since he was unaware about what to do further, he communicates with his department's head but from there also he gets the same answer as expected that this case doesn't falls under cyber department hence they are helpless. But still HOD provided him with the agency's personal advocate and hence Meet Gandhi narrated whole incident to advocate asking what ways are there to seek justice for the victim. Upon listening to the whole incident, advocate asks for the criminal psychologist also and hence agency provides with the same. And as victim's parents had narrated about Tanishk Patil, Victim's best friend as even he was also in one of the prestigious agency. After getting all the people with related to this case, Meet called Tanishk Patil and asked him to report to agency office situated in Mumbai.
So, now all 4 people i.e. Agency's official & personal advocate, Agency's criminal psychologist, Meet Gandhi & Tanishk Patil all together started planning about how to execute such difficult task without any flaws in this case. Where, Advocate came up with the idea of creation of fake female profile on Instagram impersonating someone else and hence honeytrap all such culprits. As court needs self agreement from the perpetrators, but it is impossible that they will agree what they have done with that girl, hence if any by chance if they agrees or confronts on that fake account, this will be strong proof to be showcase in front of the court. So, for this we seek official permission from the high court for the creation of fake profile on 9th September, 2024; where we got the official grant on 11th September, 2024 and the name "Shreya Jain" was suggested by High court of Bombay itself on same day i.e. 11th September, 2024. But creating just a fake profile isn't enough. To make it look real, we need photos, videos, time-to-time posts and stories etc., so here is a catch, victim's female best-friend's parents themselves told victim's parents to make use of there daughter images in fake account as even they want to seek justice from the principal & college's professors. As even she had faced the same issues in month of January-February, hence without any pressure her parents solely gave access to her images on 12th September, 2024. But since to maintain her privacy, we asked victim to take access of her images and as we will say she have to post stories and posts accordingly. Hence, neither my teammates nor any other person was having her best friend's images & videos.
From this, we started our mission to message both Sagar Jain & Akshat Shah from fake account named as "Shreya Jain" from Instagram. And hence as per our plan they got in our trap after collecting all the required proofs and self statements from there side. But still the main challenging thing was remaining that we need to message college's professor and principal, but since they weren't on Instagram, we decided to trap them on WhatsApp, again we gave an appeal in High Court and seek permission for this also on, hence High Court of Bombay grants the legal permit but also asks to share all the information w.r.t new mobile number and other necessary details, etc. to the Judicial members of Bombay High Court.
Everything was going smooth, but then in December, Psychologist asks us that we need to even have a conversation with other females irrespective of this case people, and have to narrate the whole incident as of itself victim is narrating, so that we can have more proper reports on what other female thinks about the same and hence in the court hearing we can have strong reports to showcase. But since we are going to message them from fake account, we need to seek permission again for this and we gave our another appeal in High Court w.r.t it and hence again High Court granted us permission but with certain terms & conditions, such as:
1. Whomsoever we will be going to message the female, we need to take permission from that city residing police station from where the female belongs to. For e.g., if female residing in Pune - we need to seek legal permission from Pune Police Station.
2. We need to collab with National Level NGO, who works for the rape survivors.
3. Conversations will be done by only female volunteers of the respective NGO, with whom we are partnering.
4. To confront the reality, once after the court hearing is done.
Upon this condition, we accepted and hence did the following:
1. Got permission from 14 City Police Stations including - Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Ratnagiri, Dhule, Ahmedabad, Rohtak, Jhajjhar, Sonipat, Indore, Rewa, Ujjain, Gwalior & Mandsaur.
2. Partnered with India Level NGO
3. Female Volunteers of NGO, would only be having conversations with other females.
4. Accepted to confront the reality after the court hearings.
Since, here Meet Gandhi & Tanishk Patil were going to fight along-with other advocates against opponents, advocate suggested both of them that they will only message there girlfriends' via Shreya Jain's Instagram account and once done both of them will confront them too. They chose their gfs' reason being, if any changes in their behavior can be noticed so both Meet & Tanishk can monitored the changes and hence they can report them in there investigations. So, here catch is that Tanishk agreed to do so and hence he didn't need any legal permission as he was doing this upon his own will and he was knowing about his gf that it will not backfire. But challenging was for Meet, has according to him it was against his ethics and he don't want to lie her gf, so he chose the legal way, hence on 10th February, 2025 he gives an appeal in Bombay High Court stating that he will only message to her gf w.r.t matter of Shreya Jain and initiations & all the side conversations will be done by victim itself & Meet Gandhi will confront all the reality once after the court dates or hearings is done. Seeking to this, High Court of Bombay grants him legal permission on 14th February, 2025. So, all the side conversations was done by the victim itself and even the initiations of the chat was done by victim itself.
Hence on 14th February, 2025 Bombay High Court grants him legal permit and around 6 months of time period to carry out all the investigations and make our report ready by month of August, 2025 and hence case titled "Shreya Jain", its final hearing will be on 14th August, 2025 as per notice dated 31st July, 2025.
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To be continued in PART 4! .......
or else PART 3 will be edited again after the court hearing i.e. on 14th August, 2025 as of now only the final verdict from the high court is left.
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