US Woman Condemns Rapist Getting Bail in India

A National Shame!

It was a Sunday late night and before I could hit the bed a WhatsApp alert drove me to check the message in my mobile. An old friend who lives in India’s financial capital shared a four minutes plus video of 26-mb file size which had no narratives. 

     Jennipha Lauren Nielsen 
     outside the Consulate General 
    of India in San Francisco, USA 

The content appeared pretty much serious, but the sender had no clue as she had received it from one of her many WhatsApp groups. Looking into the gravity of the content, I decided to take it forward in my small way though.

With a freeze frame did google reverse image search that led to pages and urls of an American woman who was sexually assaulted in New Delhi in 2013. The victim, Jennipha Lauren Nielsen, a human rights and gender equality activist has been condemning the bail granted to her attacker in the video. 

The convict, Raj Panwar, was in February 2019 sentenced to seven years in jail by a Delhi Court. The court had imposed 5 lakh INR and directed the amount to be paid to the complainant according to scroll.in. But strangely, the same court granted bail to the accused on 05 July 2019.

According to media reports, in 2013, Delhi resident Raj Panwar allegedly sexually assaulted the US national who was staying as tenant in his house in South Delhi with her husband. Raj Panwar is the nephew of former Delhi mayor Jayashree Panwar.

Consulate General of India, 

San Francisco, USA

Jennipha had caused a stir in Facebook on July 30 following a live video share from outside the Consulate General of India in San Francisco where she claimed of being denied of assistance. She said she was told to get some forms notarised. “Now [in] San Francisco, they tell me now that I need to go and get it notarised locally, then have to go to Sacramento [California] and get the notary verified,” she said.

In the video she went on to say: “India’s incredible corruption and lack of support for woman that are attacked is continuing. They refuse to help me yet they say that they want to stop violence against women in their own country… They want me to spend thousands of dollars to travel to the state of California on my own money because they have let a convicted criminal out on bail. We don’t give bail to convicted criminals.”

She appealed to her “desi friends” to help her and ensure that justice was served to her. “You do not let convicted criminals off when the victims were brave enough to go and testify . I need your help,” she added.

Jennipha who had travelled all alone from San Francisco to New Delhi to testify in the court, terribly regrets action of the court. She is determined to fight her case and escalate it to the Supreme Court of India for justice so that her perpetrator is not let loose on bail by a 'corrupt judge' but, put behind the bars. 

According to another report, the Indian consulate in San Francisco sympathised and offered all support to Jennipha. 

All said and done, such incidents are an eye sore which is a national shame of our country. It is high time for the authorities concerned to wake up and take corrective measures before New Delhi earns the dubious name of a rape capital. 

  Live video of Jennipha Lauren Nielsen that went viral