In a gesture that should shame perpetrators of sexual crimes, an American woman, who was molested inside a temple in Pushkar earlier this month, has forgiven her assaulter because she could not see his family suffering because of his being in jail.Becky Mason, a resident of Oregon, United States, was molested by a relative of the temple priest on January 8. The culprit was arrested and sent to jail the next day. But after about a week, Mason opted for a compromise and withdrew her case.“I met this man’s wife and child. I felt compassion for his family. I feel the time he has served (in jail) and the disgrace of his community is a fair punishment. So I decided to go back to Pushkar court and file for a compromise,” Mason has said in her written statement to the Rajasthan Police.“Now I am finished with this case. I hope that this man has learned that he needs to respect a woman’s personal boundaries or he will be punished. It is important for all people to be respectful to each other and to give each other peace,” she said.Mason, who had come to Pushkar on a tourist visa to learn Odissi dance, has decided to stay on in the city and continue her dance classes.“My spiritual strength and protection has come from prayer and sources such as Durga and Kali. Gandhi has also been a source of wisdom and inspiration. I am happy to be in India to have such wonderful opportunities to learn and continue my spiritual growth,” she said.Mason’s case was among a large number of incidents of sexual crimes against foreign tourists in the last couple of months. Two such incidents had happened in Pushkar, including one involving Mason, one in Udaipur, one in Goa, two in Kerala and one in Maharashtra. Some time back, two Japanese women were raped in Agra.The sudden spurt in these incidents prompted the Centre to review the security measures taken by state governments to prevent such occurrences in future. The five states where such incidents had happened presented the action taken reports on each of the cases at the review meeting on Thursday.The states reported that except one case in Goa, where the rapist of a British national had still not been apprehended, the accused in all the other incidents had been arrested and legal proceedings were underway. They also informed the Centre of the extra security arrangement that were being made in the wake of these incidents.The Centre urged all states to set up tourist police and suggested that the services of retired Army personnel could be utilised for this purpose.
