On being questioned on the rising incidents of kidnapping and rape cases in Madhya Pradesh, the DGP of the state VK Singh gave a statement in which he said:
“Ek naya trend IPC 363 ke roop mein dikha hai. Ladkiyaan swatantra zada ho rahi hain, aaj ke samaj mein ladkiyon ki badhti swatantrata ek tathya hai. Aise cases mein increase hua hai jismein wo ghar se chali jati hain aur report hoti hai kidnapping ki”.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1147716778115645440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
By saying what he did, probably, the DGP wanted to convey, that girls nowadays are getting the best of education and exposure. They are being given more freedom by their respective families, which in turn also gives them the opportunity to interact and mingle with boys. He means that few girls who use this freedom often run away from home with boys of their choice against parents’ wish. And many a time, the parents of such girls file ‘fake’ kidnapping cases against the boy and his family.
This statement is not totally untrue. There are many cases where the girls willfully run away with their boyfriends but their families blame the boy and his family and file false kidnapping cases against them. This mostly happens with inter-caste and inter-religion marriages, or when there are huge differences in financial and social status of both the families, as many parents don’t accept such relationships.
This remark from the DGP, which has been doing rounds on social media has, however, been misinterpreted by many news agencies.
A media house named News Track claimed that according to the DGP, crime is growing due to the freedom given to girls.
Times Now, on the other hand, calling the DGP’s statement an unreasonable analogy said that VK Singh claimed that ‘girls’ interaction with boys lead to rising in false cases of kidnapping’.
India Today called this statement ‘bizarre’ and ‘sexist’ claiming that the “Madhya Pradesh DGP said that girls get kidnapped as they talk to boys, go to schools.”
This is, however, not even close to what the DGP meant, as he was talking about fake kidnapping cases, not real ones.