Fast-track courts need to speed up: Farhan Akhtar

Actor-filmmaker Farhan Akhtar, who launched the Men Against Rape and Discrimination (MARD) campaign earlier this year, believes that the concept of fast-track courts must live up to its name, thereby granting speedy justice to victims of rape.

He also believes it can result in a serious difference to rising number of crimes against women.

"I feel that the fact that cases can go on for so long, emboldens people. I feel the concept of fast-track courts, which really hasn't come into effect the way we hoped it would... if that can happen, it will probably make a serious difference," the 39-year-old said here Wednesday.

"Right now the rate of conviction is very low and that is because of the process of judiciary moving really slow," Farhan said in reaction to the recent Mumbai rape case of a photojournalist.

Farhan stated that if there is fear of law, it will deter potential criminals from committing crimes.

"I think a certain degree of fear factor in the mind of somebody who is a potential offender is important. There has to be respect for law, there also has to be fear that 'I will get caught'," Farhan said.

A 22-year-old photojournalist was raped by five men in an abandoned textile mill complex in central Mumbai last week after her male colleague was beaten and tied-up.

All five accused have been arrested.