Rape, rape, rapes in India

Star Online:

As outrage mounts over rape in India, victim set ablaze on way to court


By Saurabh Sharma

FILE PHOTO: A poster is seen at a candle-lit march by the resident doctors and medical students from All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to protest against the alleged rape and murder of a 27-year-old woman on the outskirts of Hyderabad, in New Delhi, India, December 3, 2019

REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis 

LUCKNOW, India (Reuters) - A 23-year-old rape victim was set ablaze by a gang of men, including the alleged rapist, as she made her way to court in the northern India on Thursday, police said, stirring public outrage and shame over the scourge of crimes against women.

During the past week, thousands of Indians have protested in several cities following the alleged rape and murder of a 27-year-old vet near the southern city of Hyderabad.

Protesters and parliamentarians are pressing for courts to fast-track rape cases and demanding tougher penalties.

The woman attacked and burned on Thursday morning was in a critical condition, according to D.S. Negi, a doctor at the Civil Hospital in Lucknow, the capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

She had been on her way to catch a train in Unnao district to attend a hearing when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire, police said.

"As per victim's statement five people were involved in setting her on fire, including the one who was accused in the rape case," Vikrant Vir, a police superintendent in Unnao, told Reuters.

All five men have been detained, Uttar Pradesh police said in a tweet.

Police documents seen by Reuters showed the woman had filed a complaint with Unnao police in March alleging that she had been raped at gun-point on December 12, 2018.

women protesters against rapes 

Having been subsequently jailed, the alleged rapist was released last week after securing bail, police officer S.K. Bhagat said in Lucknow.

Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and has become notorious for its poor record regarding crimes against women, with more than 4,200 cases of rape reported there in 2017 - the highest in the country.

The Uttar Pradesh state government, currently controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came under fire in July from opposition groups accusing it of protecting a lawmaker accused of rape.

You just can't keep up with the rape cases in India. I was just getting over the poor 27-year old veterinarian who was raped and murdered when this case of a 23-year old rape victim was burnt by her alleged rapist while on her way to court. There was also another case where a 8-year girl became the victim.

8 year old Asifa Bano raped and murdered in Kashmir

Admittedly India has 1.3 billion people but the ultra rapidity and numbers of rape incidents have been staggering. And as above, many cases involved victims of only 7 and 8 years of age.

Some years back, in 2012, a 23-year-old female physiotherapy intern Jyoti Singh was beaten, gang raped, and tortured in a private bus in which she was travelling with her friend, Awindra Pratap Pandey. There were six others in the bus, including the driver, all of whom raped the woman and beat her friend.

obviously her tragic story sadly hasn't cured India of the rape culture  

The horrendous brutalities she was subjected to could not be believed in a civilised world. She was eventually medevac-ed to Singapore for emergency treatment at Mount Elizabeth Hospital but perished there.

Doctors said she succumbed to severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain. No one on Earth with her horrid wounds would have survived.

In this latest case in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, it's ironical that recently in that very State, there were concerns of a potential religious war over the Rama Temple (or birth place) at Ayodhya.

How does one reconcile religiosity (that of devotees of Lord Rama, supposedly the 'Perfect Man' in their eyes) with the base crime of such cruel rapes?