NEW DELHI: The director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Ranjit Sinha said “if you can’t prevent rape, enjoy it”; a statement that immediately drew the ire of Indian women activists and of many on the social media, who called it shameful.
Sinha made these remarks at a CBI conference in New Delhi about whether sports betting should be legalised.
“I was just making a point, that it is very difficult to enforce a ban on betting, that you can make a law but there are already so many and it is difficult to enforce. Lotteries are already legal. So I said betting could be legalized, it can be taxed. To make this point, I just used a proverb,” Sinha later told Indian media.
“It’s a malicious propaganda, it’s hitting below the belt, and it’s unfair,” Sinha added.
“There are lotteries in states. If we can have casinos in tourist resorts and if the government can declare schemes for voluntary disclosure of black money, what is the harm in legalizing betting? Above all, do we have the enforcement agencies… it is very easy to say… if you can’t enforce it, it is like if you can’t prevent rape, enjoy it. It is better to legalise it and earn some revenue rather than throwing your hands up and letting things happen as it were,” Sinha told an audience of sportspersons and officials.
In response to Sinha’ remarks, Ranjana Kumari of the Centre for Social Research said that “Such a senior police officer who is in a very responsible position and investigates criminal cases should not have passed such a remark.”
“It is not acceptable and he should apologise for it. It has become a habit of people in senior positions to treat the issue of sexual assault lightly,” she added.
