Brief facts

The case involved a series of incidents occurring on November 5 and 6, 2014. These included an initial altercation, followed by a criminal trespass, where a woman (the prosecutrix/primary victim) and her male companion (second victim) were assaulted, and a friend (third victim) who came to help was also attacked. During the trespass, the primary victim and the third victim were forced to strip and were videographed in compromising positions. Subsequently, the primary victim and the second victim were abducted. The second victim was taken to railway tracks, assaulted, and left for dead but managed to escape. The primary victim was then taken to multiple locations where she was subjected to gang rape by three individuals (two appellants and a juvenile tried separately).

Charges and initial convictions

Multiple accused faced charges including criminal trespass (Sections 450, 452 IPC), grievous hurt (Sections 324, 326 IPC), sexual harassment (Sections 354A, 354B IPC), voyeurism (Section 354C IPC), violation of privacy under the IT Act (Section 66E), abduction (Section 366 IPC), attempt to murder (Section 307 IPC), robbery (Section 394 IPC), gang rape (Section 376D IPC), and harbouring offenders (Section 212 IPC). The trial court convicted several accused on various counts, handing down severe sentences including life imprisonment. The accused appealed to the High Court.

High Court’s decision on appeals

The High Court upheld convictions for several appellants for offences including criminal trespass, assault (altered from grievous hurt to simple hurt by dangerous weapon in some instances), sexual harassment, voyeurism, IT Act violations, abduction, attempt to murder, robbery, and significantly, gang rape against two appellants.

One appellant was acquitted of all charges due to insufficient evidence placing him at the scene of the crime inside the room.

Sentences were modified for several convicts: life imprisonment for attempt to murder was reduced to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for two appellants; life imprisonment for the remainder of natural life for gang rape was reduced to 20 years rigorous imprisonment for the same two appellants. The sentence for harbouring an offender was reduced to the period already undergone for one appellant.

The Court on consent and sexual history

The High Court addressed the issue of consent, particularly in response to defence arguments that attempted to question the primary victim’s character and suggest that her alleged past relationships or sexual history, including a prior acquaintance with one of the accused, might imply consent or make her testimony unreliable. The Court emphatically rejected these notions, reinforcing the principle of “No means No.”

The judgment stated

• “NO means NO”: A woman who says ‘NO’ means ‘NO’. There exists no further ambiguity and there could be no presumption of consent based on a woman’s so called ‘immoral activities’. (Para 85)
• Irrelevance of past relationships or character: The Court made it clear that even though there may have been a relationship between the prosecutrix and [one of the accused] in the past but if the prosecutrix was not willing to have sexual intercourse with [the accused], his colleague… and the juvenile in conflict with law, any act without her consent would be an offence within the meaning of Section 375 of the IPC. (Para 85)
• Consent is instance-specific: The court stated that a woman who consents to sexual activities with a man at a particular instance does not ipso facto give consent to sexual activity with the same man at all other instances. (Para 85)
• Character and number of sexual partners are not determinative of consent: The court stated that a woman’s character or morals are not related to the number of sexual partners she has had in wake of Section 53A of the Indian Evidence Act. This section of the Evidence Act restricts evidence of the victim’s character or previous sexual experience in prosecutions for sexual offences. (Para 85)
• Primacy of consent over perceived morality: The Court addressed attempts to question the primary victim’s morals due to her being estranged from her husband and living with another man, or suggestions of a prior intimate relationship with one of the accused. It emphasized that even if such circumstances were true, “a person cannot force a woman to have intercourse with him without her consent.” (Para 84)
• Rape as aggression, domination: The Court described rape not merely as a sexual crime but as “a crime involving aggression which leads to the domination of the prosecutrix. It is a violation of her right of privacy. Rape is the most morally and physically reprehensible crime in society, as it is an assault on the body, mind and privacy of the victim, the court added. (Para 85)

In essence, the High Court’s judgment strongly affirmed that consent must be explicit and contemporaneous for each sexual act. A victim’s past sexual history, choices in relationships, or perceived character are not relevant to determining whether consent was given for a specific instance of sexual intercourse. The Court underscored that the absence of consent makes any sexual intercourse an offence, irrespective of the victim’s background or previous associations with the accused.

The judgement reinforced the evolving jurisprudence that centres the victim’s agency, making it unequivocally clear that consent must be specific, informed, and ongoing—regardless of any prior associations or societal judgments about the victim’s morality. In doing so, the Court not only delivered justice in a deeply disturbing case but also contributed meaningfully to the broader fight against rape culture and victim-blaming narratives in India’s criminal justice system.

(The author is part of the legal research team of the organisation)

Related:

When marriage is tyranny: Justice Shakdher’s judgment reads down the marital rape exception as a constitutional imperative

How Justice C Harishankar, in upholding the exception to marital rape, delivered a reasoning fir for the dark ages

A Licence to Violate: Chhattisgarh HC’s ruling on marital rape exposes a legal travesty’

The post Rape is aggression, domination, consent must be instant specific, not dictated by morality tests: Bombay High Court appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On August 18, Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar, a 21-year-old gang-rape survivor ends her life after UP Police denied to lodge an FIR against three men for the crime and coerced her father into misreporting the complaint.

According to the victim’s father, his daughter had gone missing from their home on the evening of August 16. After searching for her, she was found in an unconscious condition near a school and brought home by family members around 11 PM. Once she regained consciousness, she revealed that three men had lured and gang-raped her.

The father immediately went to the local police outpost to file an FIR but the Police refused to lodge an FIR and forced him to change the complaint.

On August 18, the victim’s younger sister discovered her hanging in her room. The devastated father reported to police that his daughter had felt humiliated ahead and abandoned due to the authorities lack of response.

The Police have said “the charges were upgraded to rape on the father’s complaint”, reported The Times of India.

A 16-years-old tribal girl gang-raped in Sahibganj (Jharkhand), dies by suicide

Another horrific incident of death by suicide of a gang-rape survivor in Jharkhand’s Sahibganj. A16-years-old minor tribal girl who was apparently unhappy with the local panchayat’s decision, allegedly ends her life.

The mother of the minor accused the panchayat head and the rape accused for killing her daughter.

On August 18, the local panchayat of Sahibganj district, where the incident happened, imposed a fine on the alleged rapist instead of accepting the earlier demand for marriage between him and the survivor made by her family members as she was a minor.

On August 19, the survivor’s mother lodged an FIR against 16 persons, including the local panchayat head and the rape accused, saying they killed her daughter on the night of August 18 when she was asleep in her room that was not bolted from inside. The panchayat head, who is the uncle of the rape accused, had reportedly presided over the meeting, police said.

The Times of India reported that the FIR alleged that the survivor was raped by a 23-old man of her village on August 15. However, the accused assaulted her at his house and threatened her with dire consequences if she approached the police.

Gang-rape horror in UP

In Uttar Pradesh, this is not the first incident where the rape survivor and family members have chosen death against police inaction. In March, 2024, 2 teen rape survivors died by suicide and father of one also was found hanged. In October 5, 2022, in Ambedkar Nagar, a student hung herself from the ceiling of her room. The father of the victim has reportedly stated that she had gone into “depression” after allegedly being kidnapped and gang-raped by two youth when she was on her way to school in the district’s Malipur area.

Related:

Police inaction against gang-rape accused drives victim to hang self: Uttar Pradesh

Rape accused allegedly rapes survivor again upon being granted bail

Unnao rape survivor set ablaze by accused!

The post Rape Horror: two gang-rape survivors die by suicide in UP & Jharkhand appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The accused reportedly took the victim to a temple in Sikar after he promised to marry her. The accused, according to a report by Times of India, are from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly.

They reportedly tried to blackmail the girl by making a video of the incident.

The victim had gotten to know the accused over Instagram where they had spoken and consequently become friends. There onward, the accused tried to get her to elope with him for marriage. She left her home one day taking jewellery and 18000 rupees in cash with her. She was met with two of his friends at the bus stand, and after that they all travelled together to Rajasthan. According to her, she was repeatedly assaulted and raped in a rented room after she reached Rajasthan.

The incident had taken place on December 31st, however, an FIR (First Information Report) was filed on March 1st. SHO Ajay Kumar stated on March 2 that the accused will be soon arrested.

Similarly, in Patna, two minor Mahadalit girls were raped in Bihar’s Patna. One of them, an eight year old, succumbed to her injuries and died. The accused have been arrested. The families had told the police that both of the girls had gone out together to gather cow dung cakes one day but soon failed to return home. In January, a family member of one of the victims stated that one of the minors’ bodies was discovered by locals the following day after which the police investigation started.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) there has been a rise in the number of reported incidents of rape against Dalit women. There was a surge of about 45 percent in reported cases of rapes from 2015 to 2020. Furthermore, the records show that on an average about 10 incidents of rape against Dalit women and girls are reported daily in India. What is even more disconcerting is that, as per the reports by human rights organisations, the cases that are reported represent only a small number of the true number of incidents occurring.

Related:

January 2024: Alarming surge in attacks targeting Dalit women 

Chennai: Dalit man hacked to death by in-laws due to caste

Dalit groom attacked, threatened, and beaten off a horse at his wedding in Gujarat

Dalits attacked by upper castes at Buddha Katha ceremony in Kanpur

Unveiling hidden divides: caste, gender and the myth of Indian growth

The post Minor Dalit girl gang raped after promise of marriage appeared first on SabrangIndia.

It is crucial to highlight here that at least two of the three men arrested are associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell in Varanasi. As per the details available on the social media profiles of the two accused, Kunal Pandey was a coordinator for the BJP IT cell’s Varanasi unit while Saksham Patel was a co-coordinator. As per a report of the Quint, an anonymous Varanasi BJP leader also provided that Pandey is the son-in-law of a local BJP councillor. As per the report of the IE, a senior office-bearer of the BJP media team for Kashi zone confirmed that Patel was a co-coordinator of the BJP IT cell, Varanasi unit, while Pandey was a coordinator for BJP IT cell Varanasi unit. The officer also provided that the two are not part of the new team that was formed after Diwali. Notably, the FIR (First Information Report) in the present case had been filed prior to the festival of Diwali.

The said incident, which had caused a massive uproar in the campus and had resulted in protests being organised demanding justice and a safer campus for women, had taken place in the beginning of November 2023. According to the complaint lodged by the victim on November 2, she was out with a friend on the IIT-BHU campus on the night of November 1 when the incident took place. The duo was near the Karman Baba temple when three men came there on a motorcycle and forcibly took her to a corner and gagged her after separating her from her friend. The three accused then stripped the victim, made a video of her and clicked photos. As per her complaint, she was let go after 15 minutes. The three accused took her phone number, the complaint stated. Based on the complaint, a FIR had been lodged. Later, on November 8, the survivor had recorded her statement before the magistrate and the police investigating officer, which resulted in charges pertaining to gang rape being added to the case.  The survivor had also alleged that the incident had been carried out at gunpoint. 

Arrest of the three accused, confession followed:

The report of the Quint provided that a Varanasi police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, shed light on the way the three accused were identified and nabbed by the police. As per the report, the movements of the three accused were being traced with the help of an informer, which ultimately led to their arrest. It had been previously provided that the faces of the trio were unclear in the CCTV footage accessed by the police, since the incident took place in the night.

The police said the three were arrested on the night of December 30, 2023. As provided by the report of the IE, Varanasi DCP (Kashi zone) Ram Sevak Gautam provided that the three arrested accused have confessed to the crime. DCP Gautam further stated that mobile phones have been recovered from the accused as well as the motorcycle they used in the crime. It has further neem asserted by DCP Gautam that The Uttar Pradesh Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act, 1986 will also be invoked by the police in this case. As per multiple media reports, the three accused were sent to judicial custody for 14 days by a local court on the evening of December 31, 2023.

Opposition, social media users slam the BJP and the silence of mainstream media

As soon as the news of the arrest surfaced and the previous posts of the accused went viral establishing their links with the current ruling BJP party, the opposition parties started slamming them. In a video, Supriya Shrinate showed the pictures of the three accused with top leaders of the BJP, namely PM Narendra Modi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani and President of BJP, JP Nadda. She further accused the party of protecting and promoting rapists, attacking them for keeping a calculative silence over the matter.

The video can be viewed here:

IIT BHU में दो महीने पहले एक छात्रा का गैंगरेप हुआ, जिसमें 60 दिनों तक गिरफ्तारी नहीं हुई।

जब गिरफ्तारी हुई तब तीनों आरोपी BJP के पदाधिकारी निकले।

BJP में न सिर्फ बलात्कारियों को संरक्षण मिलता है, उन्हें ऊंचे पद भी दिए जाते हैं।

: @SupriyaShrinate जीpic.twitter.com/TFPIHpyQ7c

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 31, 2023

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also took to ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) to criticise BJP, stating that the three arrested were part of a new crop of BJP workers thriving under the patronage of senior leaders. Yadav also alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government had been forced to arrest the men because of the solid evidence in the case and the growing public anger.

In his post, Yadav had written “Every woman across the country is seeing how the BJP is playing with women’s dignity and protecting those accused of atrocities, harassment and rape.”

The post can be viewed here:

ये हैं भाजपा के दिग्गज नेताओं की छत्रछाया में सरेआम पनपते और घूमते भाजपाइयों की वो नयी फसल, जिनकी ‘तथाकथित ज़ीरो टॉलरेंस सरकार’ में दिखावटी तलाश जारी थी लेकिन पुख़्ता सबूतों और जनता के बीच बढ़ते गुस्से के दबाव में भाजपा सरकार को आख़िरकार इन दुष्कर्मियों को गिरफ़्तार करना ही… pic.twitter.com/VgVJFZBPUO

— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) December 31, 2023

Indian National Congress’ Uttar Pradesh chief Ajay Rai also attacked BJP by posting on social media that “This is the evil face of BJP. Shameful.” In his post on X, Rai stated “For the BJP, ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ is just a slogan. I had said at that time that BJP people are involved in this matter.”

The post can be viewed here:

“भाजपा के लिए ‘बेटी बचाओ-बेटी पढ़ाओ’ बस एक नारा है।

मैंने उसी समय कहा था कि इस मामले में भाजपा के लोग शामिल हैं।”

IIT-BHU की बिटिया के दोषियों की गिरफ्तारी पर प्रदेश अध्यक्ष श्री @kashikirai जी की टिप्पणी pic.twitter.com/smOj6aCRP1

— UP Congress (@INCUttarPradesh) December 31, 2023

In addition to this, Mohammed Zubair, fact-checker and co-founder of Alt News, severely criticised the main stream media from not reporting the news of the three accused arrested being linked to the ruling BJP party.

The post can be viewed here:

Hello @sudhirchaudhary @RubikaLiyaquat
@AmanChopra_ @RajatSharmaLive @AMISHDEVGAN @SushantBSinha @anjanaomkashyap @navikakumar @RShivshankar @TV9Bharatvarsh @abplive @TNNavbharat @aajtak
You ignored to do a prime time debate when the incident happened in November. You all… https://t.co/zZqQ9uL7xj pic.twitter.com/jJcNfAKTQS

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) December 31, 2023

The post can be viewed here:

ANI’s Smita Prakash would pick up every video BJP spokesperson @Shehzad_Ind makes and shares it from their official News handle. Maybe ANI will report on IIT-BHU if Shehzad Poonawala makes a video on the accused. pic.twitter.com/FuAyNdRGVj

— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) January 1, 2024

Many other social media users have alleged that the police took a period of 60 days to arrest the accused since they were associated with the ruling party.

The post can be viewed here:

I BIG BREAKING l

IIT-BHU Sexual Assault Case

— The Police came to know about the accused within three days of the incident.
— They were not arrested for being members of BJP IT Cell.
— The arrest might not have taken place if the Magistrate had not exerted pressure.

— Will… pic.twitter.com/3NEENMTtwP

— তন্ময় l T͞anmoy l (@tanmoyofc) January 2, 2024

Related:

BHU molestation case: No arrests made, students allege a previous incident of molestation by bike-borne men, institute puts in security measures

IIT-BHU: Female student molested, abused and stripped by three bike-borne men inside campus

Dalit academic alleges assault, molestation; FIR names 2 faculty, 2 students: BHU

The post IIT-BHU gangrape: 3 accused arrested, at least 2 associated with BJP IT cell of Varanasi appeared first on SabrangIndia.

In this Sessions Trial, ST Case No 113/2015 the court has sentenced the convicts to rigorous Imprisonment of 20 years u/Sec 376-D IPC with fine of Rs 10000/-, to rigorous imprisonment of 10 years u/Sec 376(2)(g) IPC with compensation of Rs 5000/-, and rigorous imprisonment for 2 years u/Sec 506(2) IPC.

This is probably the first case of conviction under 376(2)(g) IPC pursuant to as the 2013 Criminal Law Amendment, which recognised rape during communal violence as a specific offence. Before this there were convictions in the Naroda Patiya case of multiple rapes in connection with the Gujarat 2002 carnage. Lone live victim survivor Ms Zarina was awarded Rs 5 lakh in compensation.

The victim in the Muzaffarnagar case was represented by Advocates: Ms Vrinda Grover, Ms Ratna Appnender, Ms Devika Tulsiani, Mr Soutik Banerjee and Ms Mannat Tipnis and supported by many activists.

The post Two men convicted in case of gang rape: Muzaffarnagar 2013 communal violence appeared first on SabrangIndia.

As Holi celebrations slowly came to a close, a young newly wed couple on their way to meet the woman’s family came face to face with a living nightmare. They were waylaid and the woman was allegedly gang-raped, while her husband was forced to watch the horror. Yet this was one more horrific incident of a crime against women that is yet to create an uproar in Uttar Pradesh, or on national media debates so far.

According to a report in Amar Ujala, the couple was intercepted next to a forested area around a place called Jharna Nala, under the Etmadpur police station in Agra district of Uttar Pradesh. Three men reportedly stopped the couple who were travelling on their motorcycle. They beat the husband, dragged the couple into the forest thicket and disrobed them. The three then raped the young woman and also reportedly filmed and photographed the heinous act. The attackers then fled the spot but not before looting the woman’s jewelry and ten thousand rupees that they had on their person that day. 

The victims somehow managed to reach the police post and a case was filed against the two men the woman was able to name, and another unnamed man. According to the news report the couple belong to a minority community. The woman was brave even after surviving the horror and told the police that she and her husband were travelling to her maternal home on Monday evening, when they were stopped by the three men who came riding on a Bullet bike.

The woman detailed the horrors of the attack and said that the accused who fled, threatened to kill both of them if they complained to the police. However, the husband called the emergency number as soon as they reached the woman’s home. It was only the next day that the victim couple managed to lodge a complaint on Tuesday afternoon.

According to news reports quoting SPRA Satyajit Gupta, “The victim’s complaint has been registered against Shahdara resident Gauri Rajput, Monu and an unknown in the case of gang rape, and robbery”. The survivor was sent for a medical examination, said police. No arrests have been made yet. According to a report in Live Hindustan, the two accused Gauri Rajput and Monu are both residents of Shahdara. 

Related:

Uttar Pradesh: Three men sentenced to death for teenage girl’s rape, murder

3,110 rape cases recorded against Dalits and ST women in 2019: Centre in RS

Aligarh: Woman allegedly raped while undertaking ‘Kanwar Yatra’

UP: Father of gang-rape survivor dies in alleged accident

The post Agra: Couple waylaid, woman gangraped on Holi evening appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The post 19-year-old woman abducted, gangraped in MP, no arrests yet appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A horrific gang rape and murder has been reported from Bihar’s  Muzaffarpur district. The victim is a 12 year old girl child, who had been raped by four men and set ablaze on January 3. According to the news report in the Hindustan Times, the local police have said that a first information report (FIR) has been filed against the four suspects.

The four suspects have been booked under various sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC), a news report in the Hindustan Times quoted Sahebganj senior superintendent of police Jayant Kant as saying. However the suspects are yet to be arrested, and a police team is reportedly “trying to catch the men”. According to the news report, a complaint was filed on Tuesday by the girl’s father, who works as a daily wager in Punjab, but had rushed home on hearing of the incident. The father is reported to have told the police that the four accused forced their way into the house where the child lived and raped her, they then set her ablaze and disposed of her body later.

He is quoted by HT stating, “I returned to Bihar after my elder daughter, who witnessed the incident, called me. She told me that four men from the village entered my house and gang-raped my youngest daughter. Later, they killed her, setting her ablaze in a room in our house, to destroy all the evidence. They also disposed of her body after the incident.” He has made these allegations in his police complaint.

He added that the four men had first raped the minor on December 23, and allegedly filmed the crime and then blackmailed her into having sex with them. However, “They killed her on January 3 after raping her once again when she refused to listen to them,” the father alleged.

Related:

Workers Front files petition against UP gov’t shutting down women’s helpline

Madhya Pradesh: On being refused water, four gang-rape, brutalise woman with iron 

Walayar rape case: Kerala HC sets aside Trial Court’s acquittal order

The post 12-year-old gang-raped, burnt to death in Muzaffarpur appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A group of national women organisations have strongly condemned the January 3, 2021 gang-rape, torture and murder of an anganwadi workerin Badaun, Uttar Pradesh in a joint statement released on January 7.

The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA,) the National Federation Of Indian Women (NFIW,) the All India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA,) the Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan (PMS) the All India Mahila Sanskritik Sangathan (AIMSS) and the All India Agragami Mahila Samiti (AIAMS) demanded the immediate arrest of the accused: a mahant (chief priest) and his associates.

They also demanded protection for the victim’s family and proper police and administrative action to ensure speedy justice. Organisations called upon all member activists to campaign strongly on the issue to expose the dangers faced by women under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime.

The 50-year-old woman was allegedly attacked on Sunday night at the temple she used to visit to offer prayers. Police arrested two of the accused men although the Chief priest is still on the run.

“The mangled body of the woman was brought back in a car and left in front of her home,” said the women’s organisations. “In a repeat of the callousness evidenced in the Hathras case, the police ignored the pleas of the family to lodge the FIR. They turned up only the next morning and after the post mortem revealed severe injuries including injuries in the private parts of the victim’ s body,” they said, condemning the complete apathy of the police.

The Senior Superintendent of Police, Badaun stated that the Inspector of Police has been temporarily relieved of his duties. But organisations claimed that, like earlier cases, there will be efforts to side-line the sexual assault and murder and to subvert justice to cover up the condemnable record of the Adityanath government when it comes to women’s safety. 

“It is shameful that such horrendous crimes against women are being committed at a time when the Uttar Pradesh government is preventing women from holding peaceful demonstrations with their just demands for food and work. It is doubly shameful that in a regime that boasts of religiosity, temples are becoming sites of crimes and mahants are becoming perpetrators,” they said.

Related:

Ex IAS officer claims UP govt detained him for trying to meet Badaun gangrape victim’s family
Woman allegedly gang raped, brutalised inside UP temple 
Uttar Pradesh: 19-year-old woman allegedly gang-raped when returning from Navratri 
Uttar Pradesh records highest crimes against Dalits: NCRB …
Two Dalit labourers in Uttar Pradesh survive brutal assault by upper-caste mob

The post National women organisations demand justice for anganwadi gang-rape victim appeared first on SabrangIndia.

There is an appalling silence from those in power on the brutal gang-rape and murder of a woman who had gone to offer prayers at a temple in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, January 3. The 50-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped and brutalised in the temple compound in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district and has died of her injuries. 

According to news reports the woman’s son said the temple priest along with two others had come to the woman’s house with her body and left. When asked, the priest said the woman had fallen into a well and on hearing her cries for help, he along with two others went towards the well. He did not have any number of the woman’s relatives and left her at her house, added the news report.

The 50-year-old woman was brutalised and in the Ughaiti area of Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district, police have said. According to a report in The Outlook, the woman’s husband said she had gone to the temple worship on Sunday but never returned. The police have booked a priest and two disciples under IPC sections 376-d (gang-rape) and 302 (murder) at the Ughaiti police station. in Budaun. 

The woman’s post-mortem report has confirmed rape, injury in her private parts, and fracture in her legs. Senior superintendent of police (SSP) Budaun, Sankalp Sharma, was quoted by Outlook, saying, “The post-mortem has confirmed injuries on private part and the reason of death is shock and haemorrhage due to ante-mortem injuries. The priest and his aides are missing. We have registered an FIR against them. We have deployed multiple teams to nab the accused.” The SHO has been suspended.

According to India Today, the woman worked as an Anganwadi worker and had gone to the temple to offer prayers on the evening of January 3. The family of the victim has accused the priest of rape and murder. They have also accused the police of a delay in filing an FIR in the case. The police were informed about the case on Monday morning, stated the report.    

While there is a complete lack of outrage on the case, the district police have claimed the cases have been registered, based on the post mortem report and the complaint filed by the victim’s family. It added that two persons were arrested but have not disclosed if the temple priest is one of the men nabbed.

परिजनों द्वारा लिखित तहरीर व पोस्टमार्टम रिपोर्ट के आधार पर धारा 376डी व 302 भादवि का मुकदमा पंजीकृत कर लिया गया है। SPRA के पर्यवेक्षण तथा क्षेत्राधिकारी के नेतृत्व में अभियुक्तों की गिरफ्तारी के लिए 04 टीमें गठित कर 02 अभियुक्तों की गिरफ्तारी कर ली गयी है ।

— Budaun Police (@budaunpolice) January 6, 2021

Chief Minister Adityanath’s silence on this case is in direct contrast with the fanfare a few months ago when he had marked the first day of Navratri the nine-day Hindu festival celebrating the nine forms of the mother goddess Shakti or Durga, with launching ‘Mission Shakti’ that  aims at “guaranteeing security & respect for every woman in the state.” The CM had then warned that there will be “zero tolerance in cases of crime against women, and those guilty will be dealt with an iron hand”. Police divisions across the state were busy amplifying the CM’s scheme, many functions were held and facilities such as help desks for women launched including women help-desks at all 1,535 police stations. None of that has slowed down crimes against women in the state.

Related:

Uttar Pradesh: 19-year-old woman allegedly gang-raped when returning from Navratri 

Uttar Pradesh records highest crimes against Dalits: NCRB …

Two Dalit labourers in Uttar Pradesh survive brutal assault by upper-caste mob

Ghaziabad crematorium roof collapse: Accused to be charged under NSA

The post Woman allegedly gang raped, brutalised inside UP temple appeared first on SabrangIndia.