NEW DELHI – Hundreds of people on Saturday laid siege to a police stationwhere four men are being held over the latest gruesome rape-murder to shockIndia.
Baton-wielding police pushed back crowds from the building in the southerncity of Hyderabad where they said the 27-year-old veterinary doctor wasgang-raped, killed and then her body burned.
While the suspects were quickly detained, the killing sparked new outragein a country that has been in the international spotlight over its handlingof sex assaults since the brutal gang-rape and murder of a student on aDelhi bus in 2012.
“How anyone could subject another human being to such terrible, unprovokedviolence is beyond imagination,” said former opposition Congress partyleader Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.
Police had to bring in reinforcements to bolster security around theHyderabad police station. The suspects were to appear before a magistratefor what was expected to be the start of “fast-track” proceedings laterSaturday.
But police were also criticised as protests spread to other cities.
– Ashes discovered –
A woman who tried to stage a one-person demonstration outside the Indianparliament in New Delhi said she was beaten by police after refusing to gohome.
Anu Dubey had sat outside the assembly carrying a sign questioning why shecould not “feel safe” in her own country.
“The only purpose of this protest is to ensure that I am not burned todeath tomorrow,” she told reporters later, fighting back tears.
“That woman died, other girls have also died. Every 20 minutes, there is arape in India. I don’t want to die. And I can’t be a spectator to any morerape cases. I’m tired of seeing such cases over and over again,” she said.
According to government figures, more than 32,000 rape cases were reportedin 2017, however, experts say that the crime is vastly unreported.
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Other cases reported Saturday included a 16-year-old girl who died in aDelhi hospital 10-days after being allegedly raped by a neighbour and thenset ablaze.
Police said the 27-year-old Hyderabad vet, who cannot be named, wasabducted on Wednesday night after she left her scooter near an express-waytoll booth.
The four men are alleged to have deflated a tyre whilst she was away andoffered to help when she returned to collect it.
The victim called her younger sister to say she was stranded and that agroup of men had offer to fix her scooter.
The woman said she was “afraid”, according her sister’s testimony topolice. The sister called back later but the victim’s phone was switchedoff.
Police said the ashes of the woman’s body were found on Thursday morning.The body had been wrapped in a blanket and doused with kerosene.
The killing has set off a firestorm of social media comment, many callingfor a tough reaction.
“The culprits must be given severest punishment,” commented Rajasthanstate’s chief minister Ashok Gehlot, one of tens of thousands to postTwitter comments.
Women’s groups turned against a minister in Telegana state, which includesHyderabad, who said the dead woman could have been saved if she had calledpolice first instead of her sister.
“Is there no shame,” hit back Swati Maliwal, head of the Delhi Women’sCommission. “Now the blame is being put on the dead victim.” – APP/AFP
