The letter of the law.

A 10 year old girl has become pregnant after being raped by her mother's own brother over several months. The child is forced to get permission for an abortion from a judge because she is 26 weeks pregnant and the law allows abortion up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. A court in Chandigarh refused permission for abortion fearing for the safety of the child. Leaving aside the bestial nature of the crime, which is sadly all too common in India, there are many issues which are impossible to understand. Why didn't the mother take her to a doctor earlier? We can only guess, but it maybe because the girl has not yet had a period, so the mother was not alerted by her daughter 'missing a period'. Also the nature of the crime is so shocking that no ordinary parent can even imagine it happening to their own child, even if we read about more sickening attacks on children everyday. The Supreme Court has ordered examination of the child by a medical board before it decides on whether to allow the girl to undergo an abortion. By then the girl will be about 28 weeks pregnant. A little girl, practically a baby herself, raped by an adult she trusted, now undergoing a terrifying ordeal of attending courts full of formidable adults looking through every letter of the law to decide on her fate. At least the girl is still alive, whether that is a blessing for her only the future will tell. Not so lucky were children in Nithari, where poor children were raped, murdered and cannibalised. That is a classical case of police and politicians colluding with a rich criminal, Moninder Singh Pandher, to destroy evidence and prolong the investigation unnecessarily, in a bid to subvert the case. We see that everyday in India. Yesterday, both the accused were sentenced to death, but both are still protesting innocence. Unbelievably, Pandher has been out on bail since 2014, which is unique to India. For reasons unknown, no one in India uses the word 'pedophilia', including the press. In the West pedophilia is taken extremely seriously and there are dedicated police departments to go after these perverts. In India, on the other hand, there seems to be a silent conspiracy never to mention this crime. Thus, Ruchika Girhotra was continuously referred to as a teenager in the press, when she was just 14 years old, which allowed Rathore to escape with a laughable prison sentence of 6 months. As in everything we have laws against sexual abuse of children but everything is done to see that the perpetrators escape justice. No wonder pedophile tourism is a lucrative source of revenue for governments in India. Even now Pandher's son is defending his father saying,"...we will appeal against the CBI court's judgement." He should apologize to the families of victims and change his name. At least have some shame.