Balgangadhar Tilak's great grandson tortures woman to suppress rape, victim turns to media after miscarriage of justice

# Disheartened from system, rape victim turns to media to send culprit Rohit Tilak behind bars 

# A woman is misled, raped, tortured and attacked with acid for raising a voice while the perpetrator roams the streets without arrest, destroying evidence and threatening the victim.  

# In a gross miscarriage of justice, great grandson of Balgangadhar Tilak has been allowed to roam free despite serious rape allegations against him.  

Rohit Tilak has been accused of misleading a woman by claiming that he was unmarried, forcing himself on her and extorting money through black mail. On July 17, he was booked under sections 376 (rape), 377 (unnatural sex), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) 504, 506 (criminal intimidation) 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication), but was granted interim anticipatory bail on July 20. 

The victim said that the Pune court allowed the anticipatory bail on the grounds of allegations against the complainant without submission of any prove for the same.  In addition, the victim was attacked by acid and asked to withdraw the case, so additional FIR has been filed for the acid attack.  Judge Mrs. Lata Yenkar, who was presiding over the case, forced the victim to make her identity public in front of at least 1000 men accompanying Mr Tilak to the court.  

"The total disregard of every law, every procedure and total trashing of the basic fundamental and human rights of the victim by the judge Mrs. Lata Yenkar ought to be addressed and whether this gross miscarriage of justice and open violation of the basic right to life and dignity of a woman victim should be accepted due to this failure of our system to deliver justice or to protect our women," the victim's lawyer said in an open letter.  

In an appeal to media to help her end the violation of a rape victims' rights, in only this case but as a common practice, the victim's lawyer Dipti Srivatsan Kale asked, "Every woman in this country has a right to life and a right to dignity and if this is the way that we treat the women who approach the courts for justice in a rape case, what would be recourse open to such victims." 

The lawyer claimed that Judge Yenkar mistreated the victim in court of law by shouting at her, refusing her an in-camera hearing and forcing her to reveal her identity despite clear laws against it. The judge also disallowed the victim's lawyers to admit recordings of abusive calls made by Mr Tilak.  It is also pertinent to note that the husband of Judge Mrs. Lata Yenkar, also a judge and was suspended under anti-corruption enquiry and is now in practice and accessible.  

The victim had filed a transfer application with the District Judge but that too was summarily dismissed. After Judge Yenkar retired from her duty, the victim moved the Bombay High Court seeking cancellation of Mr Tilak's anticipatory bail but the court has kept the matter pending for four months despite repeated requests highlighting urgency of the matter.  Meanwhile, the victim and the witnesses continue to be threatened by Mr Tilak and his wife with forcibly recorded pornographic videos and images and abusive calls.

The victim has approached every forum under the law for justice and yet she was insulted and threatened in every way with no justice.  'With much anguish and despair' and 20 years of experience as Bombay High Court lawyer, 'I ask the question, if women are raped and common citizens killed with no one accountable whether the institution of justice survives', the lawyer asked in the open letter.  

"As a lawyer and an officer of the court, I raise this question what can be done to correct the state of evil that has afflicted our law and order and judiciary," she questioned.The victim has appraoched the high court, the PMO, the ministry for law and judiciary, the national womans commissioner, the CJI and the CMO before approaching the Supreme Court to invoke the writ jurisdiction for violation of her fundamental rights.