Necrophilia: A Psychological Offence
Necrophilia is derived from the Greek words Nekros + Philios. Nekros means dead body, and philios means to Love.
Necrophilia is when a person has a sexual attraction toward dead bodies. A necrophiliac desires to have a sensual attachment to a corpse. Necrophilia is a fantasy of a person who wants to be erotic with dead bodies. In psychology, such a fantasy makes a person lose their empathy. Necrophilia is some paraphilia where the person is psychologically harassed to have a craving for sexual pleasure abnormally, unlike a normal person.
Why a necrophiliac wants to have sex with a corpse was defined by ‘Rosman vs Resnick’ 1989 - This type of Person’s desire to possess a non-resisting and non-rejecting partner like a doll, so they prefer a corpse.
Is Necrophilia an offence?
Necrophilia is a different perception of an offence. Necrophilia is not something to find easily in people around us. It is a rare psychological term which is found in some kinds of people.
But it’s not like that Necrophiliac is a person of Unsound mind or Insane; they have uncontaminated intention or capacity to conceal their Act in a proper way.
All over the world, still, many countries still do not have specific legislation to recognise necrophiliacs or which can define it as an offence.
However, in countries like - the UK, Canada, South Africa & New Zealand where necrophilia is defined as an offence and Necrophiliac as a perpetrator.
Regrettably, India does not have any single legislation to criminalise Necrophilia; under the Penal Code, there is not any Section which can define Necrophilia or protect the corpse of a human from the lust of a Necrophiliac.
→ Sections 297 & 377 of the IPC regularised the cases related to Necrophilia.
Presently in the case of ‘Rangaraju Vajapey Vs. State of Karnataka’ held that Sec 297 & 377 of the Indian Penal Code deal with a living person and not with a dead person’s dignity.
→ Section 14 of the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and related matters) Amendment Act, 2007 of South Africa prohibits the commission of sexual acts with dead bodies.
→ If we see In the United Kingdom, there is a similar law that says a sexual Activity of penetration with a corpse was made illegal under the Sexual Offence Act 2003. Here Perpetrator will get 2 years of imprisonment. Before 2003, the UK never had any legislation which could regularise Necrophilia.
→ Even countries like the US Law System do not have federal legislation barring sex with dead bodies, but each State has their own laws.
→ The most well-known case of Necrophilia in India is that of ‘Nithari Killings 2006” - where a wealthy businessman and his servant kidnapped 19 girls and raped and killed them.
This was the case when the whole country was terrified after listening to the story of the case; there were inhuman activities conducted, which were Paedophilia, Necrophilia and Cannibalism.
→ Another horrifying case was ‘Darbara Singh’ 1961; in this case, the accused used to entice his victim by using chocolates, sweets, juice, etc. Then they were taken to a sequestered place, sliced their throats, and raped them. The accused killed 17 children, most of whom were girls.
Even after many years have passed. But Still, there is no legislation made which can penalise the sexual act relating to dead bodies, or we can say Rape of a Corpse, which is called Necrophilia.
Somehow, Sec 297 & 377 of the Penal Code regulate the offence of Necrophilia.
Sec 297, which describes trespassing on burial places etc.—Whoever, with the intention of wounding the feelings of any person, or of insulting the religion of any person, or with the knowledge that the feelings of any person are likely to be wounded, or that the religion of any person is likely to be insulted thereby, commits any trespass in any place of worship or on any place of sepulchre, or any place set apart from the performance of funeral rites or as a depository for the remains of the dead, or offers any indignity to any human corpse, or causes disturbance to any persons assembled for the performance of funeral ceremonies, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.
There are many deficiencies to make Necrophilia an offence. The first deficiency is - it talks about trespassing, which means there is an exception for those who work there.
Second deficiency - wounded of the feeling of any living person ‘whereas a dead does not have feelings.’
Third, deficiency is its only imprisonment for 1 year.
Therefore this Section does not entirely protect the dignity of a corpse. If we see Section 377 of the Penal Code - which explains unnatural offence.‘Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with 1[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.’
The same goes with Section 375, which defines Rape as only talking about the person but not concerned with dead bodies.
Infringement of Corpse Honourability
There is a beautiful quote - ‘For me, a corpse has beauty and dignity, which a living body could never hold…There is a peace about death that soothes me Science explained a person lost his right; a mere corpse does not hold any feeling or sense. So, Necrophilia does not violate the rights of a person.
Article 21 of the Constitution of India - Protection of Life and Personal Liberty. ‘No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law.’ Supreme Court has described this Article as the ‘heart and soul’ of the Fundamental Rights.
In the case of Paramananda Kataria Vs. Union of India and Singh Mujeeb Vs. State of UP and Amrutha vs. the Commissioner.
The court held that Article 21 - ‘Dignity’ also extends to the dead body of the living person and observed that even dead persons have a right to Privacy and their souls should not be disturbed as they have immortal life after their death.
Section 404, 499 of IPC, which recognized some rights of a dead person. Sec 499 of the Penal Code - deal with defamation; its explanation says that it may amount to defamation to impute anything to a deceased person.
→ Article 130 of the Geneva Convention (IV) says the Deceased should be buried in an individual Grave unless unavoidable circumstances require the use of Collective Graves.
Psychological View on Necrophilia
Necrophiliac desires to have sex with a corpse who cannot deny or resist, or we can say who cannot make that person exasperated. To find out the concept of a person who desires to have sex in an abnormal way, like in Necrophilia.
1st, we see the social and political environment - as having the pressure of a society which affects the person’s mental health. to relieve such Pressure, people try to find a way which makes them happy. Same with Necrophiliac, corpses without any resistance fulfil their sexual desire. The desire is to obtain an un-rejecting, unresisting partner; perhaps some men are impotent with living women or unable to create romantic attachments. But with a dead body, the anxiety of rejection isn’t with a corpse, so they can perform.
Case of Victor Ardisson 1872-1944: A person who had sex almost with 100 women’s corpses, he confessed that he took them from Cemetry with him and slept with them, and even he always talked with the corpse of the women.
Case of John Wayne Gacy: He Slept with a dead boy in the coffin, and he raped almost 33 boys and buried them. All this happened between 1972 and 1978.
Case of Marcelo Costa de Andrade (1991): He was born to a family of immigrants from the northwest region of Brazil; he lived most of his childhood in Rio-de-Janeiro; his father abused him, and then he left to live with his step-parents, where he was violently abused, even in school he faced all kinds of violence and maltreatment. He worked as a prostitute after being kicked out of his school. He started to think that child goes to heaven like a preacher said to him. Many of his victims were decapitated. He was apprehended in 1991 and declared insane.
Conclusion
Necrophilia is when a person cannot face rejection, so he finds the corpse attractive to fulfil his sexual desire. India has a very high need to make legislation on necrophilia. So there must be proper law which can sanction the perpetrator of Necrophilia; it’s a psychological issue which cannot come under Section 84 of IPC 1864. A corpse has a right to dignity under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. Even though there are not many cases of Necrophilia, still it’s the need of the hour to make law on the same.
