Posts tagged ‘Rape’

  |  
10/06/2016

Indian men given life for gang-rape of Danish tourist | Reuters

Five Indian men were sentenced to life in prison on Friday for raping a Danish tourist in the heart of New Delhi‘s tourist district in 2014, in a case that reignited worries about sexual violence against women in India.

The men, all in their twenties, were found guilty by a Delhi court on Monday for robbing and raping the 52-year old Dane at a secluded spot close to New Delhi railway station.

“All the five convicts have been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for their offences,” additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, told Reuters at the court. The Dane was walking through an area of narrow lanes near Delhi’s Paharganj district, a tourist area packed with backpacker hotels, on the evening of Jan. 14, 2014, when she asked a group of men for directions to her hotel.

The men then lured the woman to an area near New Delhi railway station where they raped her and robbed her at knife-point, the prosecution said in its chargesheet.

India was shaken into deep soul-searching about entrenched violence against women after the fatal gang-rape in December 2012 of a female student on a bus in New Delhi.

The crime, which sent thousands of Indians onto the streets in protest against what many saw as the failure of authorities to protect women, encouraged the government to enact tougher jail sentences for rapists.

Police accused nine men of attacking the Danish woman in 2014. Three are juveniles being tried in a separate court while a fourth died during the trial.

Lawyer D.K. Sharma, representing the five convicted men, said his clients would appeal against the verdict.

Source: Indian men given life for gang-rape of Danish tourist | Reuters

Posted in Crime, Gender issues, India alert, rape, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
16/12/2014

India’s Senseless Ban on Uber: Rape Is the Real Problem – Businessweek

The alleged rape of an Uber passenger by her driver in New Delhi on Friday and his arrest over the weekend is another sad chapter in India’s ongoing battle with violence against women. While official statistics suggest the country witnessed 25,000 rapes in 2012, survey evidence suggests numbers perhaps 10 times as high.

Police escorting the hooded Uber driver following his court appearance on rape charges

The government’s response to the incident was to immediately ban Uber operations in Delhi. Alhough this might offer a welcome sign of political commitment to tackle violence, it doesn’t make sense. The police in India have been accused of multiple rapes, and tourists have been raped on a train and in a traditional Delhi taxi this year; the government has not shut down the police force, the railways, and traditional taxi services. It has singled out Uber, perhaps more because it is a high-profile, politically weak service than because of any risks riders may face.

In fact, there are good reasons to think Uber can provide a safer experience than India’s traditional transportation options do. Unlike the vast majority of rape cases in the country, the alleged perpetrator in the Uber case was arrested within hours of the incident. That’s not a surprise: Uber’s procedures guaranteed that there was considerable information available on the suspect. The company provided police with the name, age, and photo of the driver, along with his bank verified address, car details, and trip and route data. That’s a much higher level of knowledge than passengers have when they hail a cab off the street.

via India’s Senseless Ban on Uber: Rape Is the Real Problem – Businessweek.

Related articles

Posted in India alert, rape, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
15/12/2014

This Is What India’s Radio Cabs Are Doing to Make Women Safer – India Real Time – WSJ

Indian authorities and radio taxi operators in the national capital have stepped up security measures to ensure passenger safety in the aftermath of an alleged rape of a female passenger by a driver contracted to the international car booking service Uber Technologies.

Transport authorities in New Delhi have ordered radio fleet taxi companies and web-based operators to submit database of their drivers whose credentials need to be checked and have asked them to come up with a revised safety plan to be put in place by early next year, a Delhi police official, who did not wish to be named said Monday.

“A list of around 20,000 drivers has been submitted so far out of which the background details of more than 10,000 still need to be verified,” he said.

Last week, Delhi’s transport department barred Uber from operating its ride-hailing system in the national capital until it got the proper licenses. Uber on Thursday said it would suspend its service in the capital while it reviewed its screening processes. The department had stated that only six registered radio taxi companies would now be allowed to continue operating in New Delhi.

The cab operators in New Delhi, for their part, said they have certain safety rules in mind that they would submit by Dec. 31 to the transport department.

via This Is What India’s Radio Cabs Are Doing to Make Women Safer – India Real Time – WSJ.

Related articles

Posted in Affluence, Economics, India alert, rape | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
12/06/2014

BBC News – Another Indian woman found hanging from tree in Uttar Pradesh

A teenager has been found hanging from a tree in a village in northern India, the fourth woman to die in such a way in recent weeks in Uttar Pradesh state.

Anti-rape protest in Kolkata on June 7, 2014

The family of the 19-year-old say she was raped. A post mortem is under way.

It comes just one day after a woman’s body was found hanging from a tree in a remote village elsewhere in the state.

The gang rape and murder of two girls found in similar circumstances last month sparked outrage. Correspondents say more cases are now being reported.

Such attacks have long taken place in Uttar Pradesh, reports the BBC’s Geeta Pandey in Delhi, but recent outrage over sexual violence has meant that every case is being reported to police and getting media coverage.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with more than 200 million people, is also home to a staggering number of poor and it is the poor and the disadvantaged low-caste women who are most at risk of such crimes, our correspondent adds.

The body of the latest victim was found in a village in the state’s Moradabad area, just three hours’ drive from India’s capital, Delhi.

via BBC News – Another Indian woman found hanging from tree in Uttar Pradesh.

Related articles

Posted in Crime, Gender issues, India alert, Social & cultural, Women's rights | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
01/04/2014

The Links Between the Delhi and Mumbai Rape Cases – India Real Time – WSJ

The two crimes were strikingly similar: In both, a young, ambitious woman was gang-raped by a group of impoverished men in one of India’s premier cities.

But their connection didn’t end there.

National outrage at the first case, involving a physiotherapy student who died from her injuries in New Delhi in Dec. 2012, arguably had an impact on how the country reacted to the second, in which a photojournalist in Mumbai was attacked while out on an assignment in an abandoned area of the financial capital.

They are also linked through the law.

The Delhi rape triggered changes to legislation to protect women that were subsequently used to convict the men charged with the attack in Mumbai.

Parts of that toughened up legislation, which made death the maximum penalty for rape in the case of repeat offenders, are also being used, for the first time, against the men guilty of gang-raping the Mumbai photojournalist.

Three of the four men convicted of gang-raping the photojournalist have also been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for gang-raping a telephone receptionist a few weeks earlier at the same location.

This makes them repeat offenders, so eligible for the death penalty, said the public prosecutor when he pressed fresh charges against the men last week in the hope of securing a death sentence for them at a trial court in Mumbai.

In the case of the Delhi victim, the attackers were punished under the previous version of the law, which awarded the death penalty for murder in the rarest of rare cases but set the maximum penalty for rape to a life term of 14 years.

The trial judge in the case in Mumbai allowed the prosecutor to introduce the new charge of repeated offense before sentencing began, but the defense lawyers appealed against the decision in the high court. The defense also challenged the constitutional validity of handing the death penalty to repeat gang-rape offenders.

The Mumbai High Court rejected the defense’s appeal against the fresh charges but refrained from expressing  its view on the “tenability of framing additional charge.”

The judges added that their decision not to interfere in the trial court hearing fresh charges should not be construed as approval.

The High Court judges also observed that sentencing repeat gang-rape offenders to death could bypass the “rarest of rare” criteria, which has long been invoked to prevent judges from using the death penalty too frequently or in an arbitrary manner.

via The Links Between the Delhi and Mumbai Rape Cases – India Real Time – WSJ.

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta

Posted in Gender issues, India alert, Law enforcement, Rule of law | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
18/01/2014

Teenage German tourist raped on Indian train – The Local

A German charity worker was allegedly raped while sleeping on a train in southern India on Friday – the second European to report a rape in the country within a week.

The teenager was attacked while asleep on a train travelling from Mangalore in western India to Chennai on the east coast, where she was heading to volunteer with a charity.

Police said she was reportedly too scared to shout for help and alert passengers in her carriage, Indian news site NDTV said.

Officers said a man had been arrested in Chennai on suspicion of the rape.

The German, said to be just 18 years old, complained to police on Monday, three days after the alleged attack.

Seema Agarwal, Inspector General of Police, said: “The young lady took several days to muster courage to report to the police. Though it\’s too late for medical examination, we have handled the case in a very sensitive manner,” NDTV reported.

On Tuesday a 51-year-old Danish woman was allegedly robbed and gang-raped in the capital New Delhi. Police said 15 men had been arrested.

via Teenage German tourist raped on Indian train – The Local.

See also: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2014-01-16/india-police-close-in-on-homeless-men-in-gang-rape

Enhanced by Zemanta

Posted in Crime, Gender issues, India alert, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
02/01/2014

Calcutta anger as double gang-rape victim set on fire and burns to death | South China Morning Post

An Indian teenager who was gang-raped in two separate attacks has died after being set on fire, sparking protests in Calcutta.

rape_parent.jpg

The girl, 16, was assaulted on October 26 and again the day after by a group of more than six men near her family\’s home in Madhyagram town, just north of the city.

The second rape occurred as she was returning home after reporting the first attack at a police station.

A rape victim\’s dead body is covered in floral tributes before a protest march in Calcutta on January 1. Photo: EPA

She was set on fire on December 23 and died in hospital late on New Year\’s Eve, police said.

\”She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health officials that she had been set on fire by two people who were close to the accused when she was alone at home on December 23,\” local policeman Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao said.

Police made their first arrests on Wednesday, two months after the initial crime, local police chief Rajiv Kumar said.

\”The accused tried to kill my daughter by setting her on fire to hush up their crimes,\” the victim\’s father, a migrant taxi driver from India\’s poorest state, Bihar, said. Neither he nor the victim can be named for legal reasons.

Several hundred activists on Wednesday protested in Calcutta over the crime, which was shocking in its brutality, even after a year when sex crimes were widely reported in India.

Rampant rape, assault and harassment of women in India were in the spotlight in the past 12 months after the fatal gang-rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December 2012 sparked nationwide outrage.

The parliament has since passed tougher laws to punish rapists.

Despite the reforms, new cases of rape continue to be reported daily from across the country in the Indian press.

Activists say rape victims in India often face severe threats and intimidation from their attackers after the assault, while police often discourage them from lodging complaints.

via Calcutta anger as double gang-rape victim set on fire and burns to death | South China Morning Post.

Posted in Crime, Gender issues, India alert, Social & cultural | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , ,
13/12/2013

Slow change comes to India a year after Delhi gang rape | Expert Zone

(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters)

One year ago, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student was raped and murdered. Her story showed the world that women across India are viewed as dispensable, undeserving of full human rights.

One year later, what has changed?

It is heartening that the case of Nirbhaya, as she is known, led to the setting up of the Justice Verma commission that recommended strengthening outdated laws to protect women and their rights. Although change has been slow, more cases of sexual violence are being reported rather than silenced, scuttled or quietly settled. However, crime statistics and prosecution rates show that most of these crimes go unnoticed, unreported and absorbed into the culture of “that’s the way things are.”

Looking through the National Crime Records Bureau’s report for 2012, it is evident that the number of complaints registered with the police, the first information reports on rape, has risen by nearly 3 percent. The number of cases that were charge-sheeted — documented as a crime — was 95 percent. But fewer than 15 percent of rape cases came to trial in 2012.

Violence against women remains the most widespread and tolerated human rights abuse. Catcalling, taunting and grabbing women in public arise from, and perpetuate, notions of masculinity that define “real” men through power and dominance. “Minor” assaults and inequities are part of the continuum that includes rape, domestic abuse and attacks on women and girls.

This culture is enabled by men who tacitly condone it by not challenging it. That’s why to end violence against women, and change the culture, men must stand alongside us.

The Nirbhaya case started an unprecedented wave of activism. Men and women took to the streets. The massive number of men participating proved their growing role as leaders and partners in ending violence against women.

via Slow change comes to India a year after Delhi gang rape | Expert Zone.

Posted in Gender issues, India alert, Reform, Social & cultural | 1 Comment »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
24/03/2013

* ‘If girls look sexy, boys will rape.’ Is this what Indian men really believe?

The Observer: “A shocking series of brutal attacks has led to a national debate on sexual violence. The Observer asked a group of young men in Goa for their views. The talk revealed a disturbing mindset

Indian woman at food stall

“Rape is a big, big problem. It starts with the woman. They drive the man fucking crazy.” Papi Gonzales leans back in his chair and surveys the other young Indian men around the table in his beach bar, seeking approval. They nod in agreement, eager to make their own points. “When the girls look sexy and the boys can’t control themselves, they are going to rape. It happens,” said Robin Shretha, one of the waiters.

Since a 23-year-old medical student was gang-raped on a bus in Delhi in December and later died in hospital from her injuries, the issue of rape has been hugely prominent in India. Last week headlines were dominated by the gang rape of a Swiss woman on a cycling holiday in Madhya Pradesh. In the same week a British woman leapt from her hotel window in the northern city of Agra at 4am to escape the unwanted attention of the hotel manager, who was trying to get into her room.

According to government figures, a rape takes place in India every 21 minutes. The number of reported rapes rose by 9% in 2011 to 24,000. Yet conviction rates are falling, down to 26% in 2011.

The recent cases have led to worldwide outrage, and demonstrations led by women have filled the streets of major cities. But what do India’s young men think? The Observer gathered a group in the western region of Goa to hear their views. They were: Abhijit Harmalkar, 28, a driver; his brother, Avinash, 24, a factory worker; Bhivresh Banaulikar, 26, an auditor; Brindhavan Salgaonkar, 20, a factory worker; Robin Shretha, 21, a waiter; and Papi Gonzales, 32, the owner of the bar.

One word to describe their views would be “unreconstructed”. Others would be “alarming” and “frightening”. Plenty of Indian men have joined the recent demonstrations. Plenty of Indian men are committed to the cause of women’s rights. But this discussion revealed the deep moral conservatism of some young Indian males, coupled with confusion about gender roles in a society where economic modernisation is outstripping social attitudes.”

via ‘If girls look sexy, boys will rape.’ Is this what Indian men really believe? | World news | The Observer.

Related articles

Posted in Culture, India alert, Social & cultural, Women's rights | Leave a Comment »

Tags: , , , , ,
  |  
CCChang

Law of Unintended Consequences

continuously updated blog about China & India

ChiaHou's Book Reviews

continuously updated blog about China & India

What's wrong with the world; and its economy

continuously updated blog about China & India