Sep 30, 8:01 PM
A judge in India gave a child survivor what the law rarely offers: plain words
Rajani Ranga’s letter paired a life sentence with an unusually direct promise that the convicted abuser would never leave prison.
Indian courts are not exactly known for warmth, which is why Judge Rajani Ranga’s letter has landed with such force. In a system that often hides behind formal language, she chose to address a child sexual abuse survivor as someone whose fear and courage actually mattered.
The case involved a girl who was abused on 23 July 2023, when she was seven years old. She was 10 when the letter was written. The trial court sentenced the man to life in prison and ordered compensation of 1.05 million rupees, or $10,941, about £8,274.
What has drawn attention, though, is not only the sentence. Ranga said she was speaking to the child not in the usual language of a judgment, but as a judge who had heard her voice, read her words and been moved by her courage. She addressed the girl as “Dear child” and described her as the bravest little girl this court has ever seen.
The child had asked that the man she called uncle be kept in jail until he grew old. The court, in effect, told her that her plea had been heard. The judge wrote that the man would never walk free again, would live in a cage for the rest of his life, would grow old there and die there, and would never be able to harm the child, her little sister or any other child again.
That is a severe sentence, but also a rare example of judicial language that does not sound as if it were drafted by a committee terrified of its own shadow. Ranga also praised the girl for coming to court, identifying the man who hurt her and telling the truth. The point, bleak as it is, is simple: a child should never have to carry that burden, yet the justice system depends on precisely that kind of courage before it can act.
The outcome matters because it shows the court doing what courts are supposed to do when they are functioning properly: punish the offender, compensate the victim and make clear that the abuse will not be followed by a return to ordinary life. In this case, the message was unusually explicit. The man who abused the child will remain in prison for the remainder of his natural life. India may be used to bureaucratic phrasing that softens everything into dust. This time, the language did the opposite.
Written by Thomas Nussbaumer thomas.nussbaumer@alpineweekly.com
