A 20-year-old woman was paraded naked in the streets of New Delhi, India after being gang-raped by a group of men. The disturbing video was shared online and showed a crowd jeering at the woman. The woman, the mother of one, was subjected to assault after a teenager committed suicide when the woman denied his sexual advances.
Her face was blackened, her head was tonsured and tortured, a garland of shoes was tied around her neck. As the woman was dragged along the streets by another woman, she cried for help and mercy. The video has sparked outrage across social media.
The family of the victims says that the attackers were related to the teenager who committed suicide last year after the married woman refused his sexual advances. “They blamed my sister for [his] death,” her sister told the outlet, referring to the boy’s family, “and started taking out their anger against us.”
The family said the attackers made regular threats to the woman of rape and violence that she reported to the Police on various occasions. The woman says she was kidnapped before being subjected to heinous assault. She is also the mother of a two-year-old.
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Police say that the victim has said that the men sexually assaulted her in front of their mother, aunts, and other females of the family. The police have arrested 11 people so far in the case.
[WARNING]: 20-year-old Sikh woman was tortured, raped and beaten by family members of a boy who committed suicide after she denied his sexual advances.
This happened in Delhi, and it’s illustrative of the moral degradation Modi and his Hindutva allies have inflicted on India! https://t.co/WJHOmsgbQk
— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) January 31, 2022
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A rise in sexual assault
The sexual offenses against women remain high in Delhi despite the laws being stricken after the woman was killed and gang-raped in 2012 in an equally horrific incident. The incident had sent shockwaves across the world as demands were made to make the public spaces safe for women. More than, 28,000 rape cases were reported in Delhi in 2020. Observers say India afflicts with an epidemic of sexual violence.
Delhi Police and administration have been under intense tirade for not doing enough and not implementing the laws to protect women. Such has been in this case as well. The sister of the victim said that the accused men also threatened to rape her. She said she reported them to Police. Police came and warned them but no further action was taken against them, media outlet, News Laundry quoted her as saying.
Two days ago, a report published in New York Times, claims that victims of sexual assault in the state-care at the government-licensed shelter homes were also subjected to the sexual assault.
Several incidents of rape cases go unresolved or even if the culprits are punished, the incidence of the crime is on the rise. Pakistan is also grappling with a similar situation. The rape and murder of eight-year-old Zainab and the woman gang-raped on Sialkot Motorway had sent shockwaves and grief in Pakistan. Calls have been made to make law and ensure its implementation to protect women.