Festival Related Crimes

Festivals are an expressive way to celebrate glorious heritage, culture, and traditions.  They are meant to rejoice in special moments and emotions in our lives with our loved ones.  They play an important role in adding structure to our social lives and connecting us with our families and backgrounds. They give us a moment of relief, happiness, and enjoyment from our day-to-day, exhausting routine of life, and give us some inspiration to remember the important things and moments in life.  Festivals were started to pass the legends, knowledge, and traditions onto the next generation.

All festivals are cultural in one way or another.  There are many types of cultural festivals such as National, Religious and Seasonal.  They all serve the purpose of bringing happiness to our lives and strengthening our sense of community.

National Festivals: National festivals connect citizens to important moments in a nation’s history. They connect us as a people of a nation.

Religious Festivals: Religious festivals help us teach the principles and ethics of the next generation. On these occasions, we express our gratitude to God, for the special thing or event that originated on this particular festival.

Seasonal Festivals: Seasonal festivals reflect the gratitude of people towards nature.  These festivals are important because they are related to the food supply.  Human beings should adore nature and acknowledge its beneficence before partaking in any of its gifts.

Overall, in simple terms, universally all festivals are related to harmony, peace, and happiness.

1. HOLI & NAVRATRI:

Talking about Holi, it is a Hindu festival that has been celebrated since ancient times. The Holi Festival is celebrated as a way to welcome spring, and also is seen as a new beginning where people can release all their inhibitions and start fresh; whereas, Navaratri is an annual Hindu festival observed in the honor of the goddess Durga. It spans over nine nights (and ten days), first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and again in the month of Sharada.

Holi, the festival of colors, which is an important part of the Indian culture has a dark side as well. Though many people consider Holi as a festival of happiness, many crimes occur on this day. Year by year, the number of police distress calls are also increasing during Holi. Due to intoxication because of alcohol and bhang, people end up committing serious crimes like murder, hurt and grievous hurt. Offences against women such as outraging the modesty of women, rape, and murder especially increase. The practice of gambling and illegal consumption of drugs has even significantly risen and incidents of women being tricked into intoxication by spiking their food or drinks are common.
 

OFFENCES AGAINST WOMEN:

• Eve-teasing: It is a common parlance that can be understood as sexual harassment of women and girls in public places. When a man subjects a woman to obscene body language or shouts negative and sexual comments which are directed towards her or shows her any obscene object or any picture, he is said to be eve-teasing the woman. The following acts mentioned in the Indian Penal Code fall within the ambit of Eve- teasing like Singing, reciting, or uttering an obscene song, ballad, or words that annoy others (Section 294). Intruding upon the privacy of a woman through obscene gestures, indecent body language, and unpleasant words which were made to be heard by the woman towards whom the acts are directed (Section 509).

• Outraging the Modesty of a Woman: ‘Modesty’ refers to the dignity of a woman which is acquired by her since her birth. The Supreme court has referred to the modesty of a woman as her gender. The term ‘outraging’ means any harmful physical act against a woman. A person using assault or unlawful force against a woman with the intent to outrage her modesty or with the knowledge that he is likely to outrage her modesty is said to be committing an offence under Section 354 of the IPC.

In State of Punjab v Major Singh, AIR 1967 SC 63, the accused had abused the epithelial duct of a seven-and-a-half-year-old child. While the High Court of Patna and Haryana held that the child’s modesty could not be outraged, the Supreme Court overruled the verdict. It was held that a girl child acquires her modesty from birth itself and the accused was held to be guilty.

• Rape: Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code defines rape as the offence where a man has sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent. Man is said to have committed rape against a woman when: (i) He forcibly gains her consent by threatening her, (ii) He gains her consent on the pretext of deception, (iii) He has intercourse with a girl who is under 16 years of age. In the case of Lalasa Devi, Lalasa Devi was raped when she was out in the field relieving herself, by an upper-caste man during the festival of Holi.
  
  

GENERAL OFFENCES:

• Robbery: The cases of robbery also rise exponentially during the time of Holi. The target of the criminals is the victims who are either intoxicated or are in crowded places where the victim can easily rob them without their knowledge. In common parlance, robbery refers to the forced deprivation of a person’s personal property. The presence of impending fear of violence is the most differentiating feature among robbery, theft, and extortion. Robbery is defined in Section 390 of the Indian Penal Code. Robbery is punishable under Section 392 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860 with rigorous imprisonment, which may be prolonged up to 10 years, as well as a fine.

• Hurt & Grievous Hurt: During the celebration of Holi, people play with water and colors. Often accidents occur while throwing plastic balloons or bags filled with water which have short particles that can harm the eyes of the victim. These incidents, sometimes, even lead to partial blindness and other serious issues. Mumbai which uses the railway as a lifeline faces many incidents of search balloon-related issues in areas such as Malad, Goregaon, Jogeshwari, Ghatkopar, Kurla, Sion, Bhandup, and many more. These incidents depending upon the graveness of injury sustained by the victim constitute the offence of hurt and grievous hurt. When any person inflicts bodily pain, disorder, or disease which is harmful to any man or woman, they are said to have caused hurt under Section 319 of the IPC.

There are special types of Hurt that are categorized as Grievous Hurt under Section 320 of the IPC.

• Murder: It is an act that is carried out to cause death and is defined under Section 300 of the IPC. The conduct is carried out to cause bodily injury which the criminal is aware will result in death. It is punishable under Section 302 of the IPC with the imposition of capital punishment, life imprisonment, or fine.

  In Arjun V. The State (Govt. of NCT of Delhi), 2015, on the day of Holi, the deceased and the accused disagreed, and later that day, the accused stabbed and killed the deceased with the help of another accused. The trial court charged them with the offence of murder under Section 304 read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

CRIMES RELATED TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE:

• Gambling leading to Hurt, Grievous Hurt, Assault: Gambling is the act of putting something of worth on an uncertain outcome in the hopes of winning something else of value. The Public Gambling Act of 1867 is a federal statute that forbids the operation or management of a public gambling establishment and bans gambling. A fine of Rs.200 or up to three months in prison is the penalty for breaching this law. During Holi, gambling is done in private parties accompanied by alcohol drug consumption, and sale. These parties have been a hotspot for many cases of waiting for hard drugs and extensive consumption of alcohol. These can lead to situations where people can get into possible fights which lead to assault.

• Drugs & Alcohol Consumption: The consumption of drugs and liquor is done majorly during the festival of Holi and despite the government banning the legal sale of intoxicants, people purchase alcohol and drugs on Holi legally. With these, bhang is also consumed as a part of a festivity. Bhang is illegal yet it is sold in various shops in the name of the festival. Other than cases of consumption of intoxicants, there are cases in which females are unknowingly drugged by spiking their drinks. This makes them vulnerable as they are intoxicated by the drugs.

• Drinking and Driving: As we know alcohol consumption leads to many drunk driving cases which are punishable by the law and are witnessed not only during Holi but on Diwali, New Year’s, etc. During Holi, in 2017, Lucknow police reported up to 1,023 actions in three days. Accidents during Holi are usually caused due to drinking and driving. Drinking and driving is an offence under section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 where it is provided that driving while inebriated or under the influence of narcotics is punishable with imprisonment for up to six months and/or a fine that extends up to two thousand rupees for the first offence.

• DIWALI:
• Lottery frauds, lucky coupons, Diwali bonus:Often there is a flood of text messages, WhatsApp messages, and emails telling people that they have won bumper lotteries, lucky coupons, and Diwali bonus prizes. The senders can share a web link, or mobile number or tell the receivers to visit a particular website, etc. People should avoid such material. People should also try not to give their contact numbers at fuel stations where customers are promised Diwali prizes. People should not download any web link, particularly the Anydesk app.

• Lucrative offers on proxy websites of reputed firms: Cyber fraudsters create proxy websites of reputed online shopping firms, i.e., Amazon, Flipkart, etc, while making altering the spellings of the company’s name. People usually fall prey to these companies under the impression that they are buying products from genuine companies. This is the most frequent crime in the festival season. Huge discounts are offered on online shopping. Many fake companies do this practice. Ideally, people should check the authenticity of these online companies before placing an order. Customers should search about the products and online companies which are offering discounts on online shopping. They should see the review of products too.

• Distress calls to people: Distress calls to senior citizens whose wards are settled abroad have emerged as a new trend in online cheating. Fraudsters procure from various sources the records of people whose relatives have settled abroad. They give distress calls to people staying here informing them that their son/daughter has landed in trouble in a foreign country. They call innocent people through a mobile application that shows the caller’s number as registered in Canada, France, the US, etc. They demand money and people transfer the money in panic.

• GANESH CHATURTHI:

Ganesh Chaturthi, also called Vinayaka Chaturthi, in Hinduism, 10-day festival marking the birth of the elephant-headed deity Ganesha, the god of prosperity and wisdom. It begins on the fourth day (Chaturthi) of the month of Bhadrapada (August–September), the sixth month of the Hindu calendar.

• Robbery: The cases of robbery rise exponentially during Anant Chaturdashi i.e., the last day of Ganesh Chaturthi. People who are either intoxicated or are in crowded places where the victim can easily rob them without their knowledge are on target of such criminals. Teenagers or adults from 18 years of age to 22 years of age as well as people above 50 or 60 years of age are the most vulnerable lot whom these criminals target the most. In common parlance, robbery refers to the forced deprivation of a person’s personal property. The presence of impending fear of violence is the most differentiating feature among robbery, theft, and extortion. Robbery is defined in Section 390 of the Indian Penal Code. Robbery is punishable under Section 392 of the Indian Penal Code of 1860 with rigorous imprisonment, which may be prolonged up to 10 years, as well as a fine.