So, does media apathy and lack of will to investigate claims made by women in such complaints compound the problem? Certainly yes. Those who wish to settle scores through these laws know they can use the media to their advantage by passing just a copy of the FIR to them, which gets printed as it is in news with name and photo of the accused splashed across papers.

“My brother’s photo was displayed at the centre of the page and every line in the complaint was copied as if it was gospel truth,” says Gayatri (name changed), whose brother has been behind bars for last few months over what she says is a false rape case by his ex-girlfriend.

“It’s quite a helpless situation. Media will not publish the boy’s side of the story no matter how strong his evidence is. Concocted complaint printed as news then impacts what happens inside courtrooms too. Getting bail becomes really difficult as judges don’t wish to take any chance in a case that has come in public eye and reject bail without citing any reasons, but that is a crime against society,” Gayatri tells me.

In February 2016, Additional Sessions Judge Justice Nivedita Anil Sharma made an apt observation about the prevailing situation when she handed down a judgment in a false rape case. “It is time for a law to protect men from false rape cases and think about their dignity and honour,” she stated while asking if a man honourably acquitted from such a case should be called a “rape case survivor”.

Such strong observations by a woman judge also have not led to a debate on this issue in the national media. So why is media not as much bothered about lives destroyed due to misuse of rape laws as much as it is about lives destroyed due to the actual crime?

Sneha Agrawal, a young journalist with India Today Group, who has covered many stories of false accusations on men under dowry and rape laws gives me an answer. “We do not connect reputation and dignity to a man in the same way as we do to women as a society, and it’s true for media as well,” she says.

“It is difficult for people to even think that a woman can lie about such a crime. Until it happens to them, no one understands the gravity of such an accusation, the harm it can cause and what’s happening in reality today. It is true that media rarely follows up on a rape case until its final judgment. Prima facie it is the allegations only that the case is reported upon. Once an FIR is filed, it is considered that the crime has happened. Reports are printed even before the medical tests are done or the report is out. Even if there are glaring gaps in the story, journalists refrain from writing anything negative because then you run the risk of passing judgment on a sub-judice case. Even though the situation is better than before in terms of reporting such cases, I feel media should take a stand. We should not support people taking undue advantage of the law,” Agrawal emphasises.



Discussing false accusations against men can have repercussions – not only for media but for anyone. People or platforms discussing this are usually dubbed as anti-women and misogynists. Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju, drew flak from women members of Parliament last year, when he answered a question on 'Misuse of Domestic Violence Act by women' in Rajya Sabha. Even though he was just quoting data from NCRB, a woman member of Parliament branded his answer objectionable and improper, and sought an apology.

Justice Virender Bhat, who has made strong observations in rape cases that were found false during a trial, was asked to go for gender sensitisation training by Delhi High Court after a public campaign against him. There can be personal threats too.

Hardik Anand, who reports for Hindustan Times and covers crime in Haryana, wrote several articles based on facts, evidence and CCTV footage, bringing the other side of the story in a gang rape case in Rohtak, where the complainant alleged that the same boys raped her again to force her into a compromise. The case was covered by almost all known news channels with a special focus by Times Now. Anand followed up on the case after the initial media hype and kept writing about its developments, where police found no evidence against the accused and glaring inconsistencies in the complainant’s version, including her own location at the time of the alleged incident. Anand received a threatening message from the complainant’s family on his mobile phone. “It was a very threatening message. They asked me to stop writing about the case else they will see me,” he says.

The accused in this case were released after spending three months in jail as the evidence revealed that the girl was with two other men in a hotel during the time of the alleged incident, and all the accused were also far away from the place of the alleged crime on that day. The trial in the case continues. To my question, if an accused is contacted ever to know his version of the story in such cases, Anand replied with a clear ‘No’.

Apart from the risk of upsetting the common narrative, it is also an issue of giving importance to a story, clarifies Agarwal. “National editions have important stories to be picked from across the country and these cases do not really carry so much importance unless there is a huge damage to the life of the accused and shocking evidence pointing to his innocence. After a point monotony also seeps in,” she says.

I reached out to Jai Prakash, the Sub Inspector, who was accused of seeking sexual favours by the woman in the Rampur case, to know the damage the episode caused him. Still recovering from the shock of what happened, he laments, “I have been in service for 19 years. No complaint of any kind, leave aside of sexual nature, has been made against me. This blame has broken me deep inside. I was not able to face my children for a few days. My relatives called me and questioned me. I was deeply hurt. I couldn’t sleep for several days, not because I was afraid of any enquiry, but thinking what if action is taken against me without any investigation under pressure from media. I could have lost my job, my family’s only source of earning. I was presented like a devil in news despite my clean record. They added as much spice as they could and called me by such disgusting names. But after the case was proven false no one cared to see what I went through.”

So what’s the solution?

Srivastav makes a point on the responsibility of the police in these cases, emphasising “it is the police that have to be vocal about such cases because while it is our duty to punish the criminal, it is also our duty to protect the innocent. We need to be active on the social media. We need to be updated with the set-up and have our own communication strategies – it is our responsibility to inform the press that the case has turned out like this. Police should not buckle under any pressure or popular narrative. There can be no alibi for not telling the truth. We have to do what is right.” He also urges men, who are victims of false accusations to speak up, and independent journalists, civil societies to seek truth without any bias.

“We have seen what happened in case of misuse of IPC 498A. Grant of bail was a rarity once, today it’s a norm. Supreme Court has passed strict orders against any mechanical arrests in dowry cases. If misuse of rape laws continue and the system is overburdened with these cases, we will see ease of bail in such matters too. Even in genuine cases, victims will suffer as the accused would secure bail. So the solution lies with the lawmakers. I strongly feel that amendments in rape laws in 2013 were a knee jerk reaction. The 150-year-old provisions were changed in just 15 days. Everyone is scared to look at these provisions objectively now because women organisations will not spare that person. But this isn’t justice,” says a judge, who I spoke to for the story. He believes that victims of false accusations should be compensated for their loss, and it’s time the legislature thinks seriously about the situation.

When and how these solutions will be implemented is a question no one has answers for. A common view, however, is that it is important for both sides of the story to be told by media as its reports shape public opinion before any trial. Gender justice is a goal that every government, organisation, courts, media and systems should strive for, in zest for true justice.



It, however, seem like a farfetched goal if I recollect what a judge in the Punjab and Haryana High Court told me, when I went to invite him for the screening of my documentary film Martyrs of Marriage, which was on misuse of IPC 498A in Chandigarh.

Not mincing his words, he said, “As long as there is one genuine case of rape happening in this country, I don’t mind if 10 men are falsely accused of rape”.