The attempted rape and murder of a mother of four in Botsa village on July 16 has shaken Nagaland. That she survived is due to her courage and the immediate action of her community — not the system. And that is the real problem.
It was not the police who caught the accused. It was the youth of Botsa. The survivor was not rescued by a forensic team, but by her own screams. She made it home bleeding, yet alive, to name her attacker. The community acted — the state barely has.
What happened in Botsa is not an isolated incident. From the Dimapur nurse assault in February to the Pimla murder in April, from unresolved sexual assault allegations against a senior bureaucrat to the attempted abduction of a woman by a taxi driver, the pattern is grim and consistent: gender-based violence occurs, outrage erupts, and then silence.
Nagaland’s justice system is stuck in a cycle of delay. Chargesheets are pending. Trials stall. Survivors are retraumatized. And worse — perpetrators walk.
A major choke point is the forensic system. One of the core reasons behind this paralysis is the state’s near-total lack of forensic infrastructure.
Nagaland, a state with over 2 million people, has only one forensic science laboratory — in Dimapur. This lone facility is expected to handle every serious crime across 16 districts. The lab is overburdened, under-equipped, and has long struggled with staffing gaps. Even when new posts are announced, recruitment and deployment remain painfully slow.
Crucially, under India’s new criminal laws that came into effect on July 1 2024, a forensic expert must now be present at the scene of any crime punishable with over 7 years of imprisonment. Yet in Nagaland, this is often not possible — not because of negligence, but because the experts are simply too few in the state.
In serious crimes like the Botsa case, where evidence must be processed scientifically and chargesheets filed within 60 days, this absence can derail an entire case. Samples are routinely sent to labs outside the state — causing delays, compromising integrity, and risking justice.
If one lab chokes, the entire system collapses. And Nagaland has only one.
The survivor in Botsa did her part. So did her community. The state must now act: Expedite the Botsa investigation without procedural delays; Publicly disclose the functional status of the Dimapur forensic lab; Commit to establishing at least one additional forensic unit in eastern Nagaland; and Ensure trained personnel are deployed and supported, not just announced.
Justice cannot be left to outrage and luck. It must be delivered through functioning institutions. In Nagaland, those institutions are failing women.
She survived. Now the system must do its part — or be held accountable for failing her again.
