New Delhi – A deadly sexual assault has once again taken Indians to the streets to express their outrage, as officials promise speedy justice but appear to have suffered to curb violence against women. There were protests over the weekend following the rape of a 34-year-old woman, who died as a result of the terrible injuries caused in the attack, in India’s financial capital, Bombay.
Officials have said the victim was raped and then tortured with an iron bar in a truck parked in the suburban city of Mumbai on Friday morning. He died at a local hospital a day later.
A grainy but creepy security camera video of the crime scene appears to show a man lying on top of the victim’s body.
Bombay police have arrested a 45-year-old man and charged him with rape and murder.
“The investigation revealed that there was only one person involved in the execution of the crime,” Bombay police commissioner Hemant Nagrale told reporters. “He has confessed to the crime.”
Mumbai police have increased patrols in the city and the government of the state of Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, is reviewing its measures to ensure the safety of women.
“The heinous crime that took place in Saki Naka (a suburb of Bombay) is a disgrace to humanity. The case will be tried quickly and the culprit will be severely punished, guaranteeing justice to the woman who lost her life due to of this terrible crime Officers are aimed at speeding up the investigation, “Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray wrote on Twitter.
The case bears a strange resemblance to the horrific rape and murder of a young medical student in New Delhi in 2012, which led to mass protests and reached the international headlines. The attack exposed the extent of sexual violence against women in India, prompting lawmakers to tighten sanctions in cases of rape.
Indian law prohibits identifying victims of rape, but the country’s media dubbed the victim of the 2012 attack as “Nirbhaya” or “Fearless”. She was raped on a moving bus by six men who also used a metal bar to cause massive internal injuries. He died in a hospital two weeks later.
Seven years later, in 2020, four of the six convicts were convicted executed hanging. A fifth allegedly committed suicide in prison in 2013. The sixth was 17 at the time of the attack and was treated as a minor under Indian law. He was released in 2015 after serving three years in a renovation house.
But despite years of outrage and protests, and tougher punishments and prosecution for sexual violence, India continues to denounce a high number of rapes. According to government data, more than 32,000 violations were reported in 2019, a year for which figures are available. That means almost four rapes every hour, on average.
INDRANIL MUKHERJEE / AFP / Getty
The country also denounces a high number of other crimes against women, including kidnapping, trafficking, domestic violence and acid attacks. More than a thousand of these cases were recorded every day, on average, during 2019.
The latest case in Bombay, in addition to a number of other violations that were reported in the state of Mahrashtra, sparked outrage both online and on the ground. Several activists held protests in Bombay over the weekend demanding strict punishment for the accused and a safer city for women.
On Friday night, a 15-year-old girl was abducted after getting off a train in Ulhasnagar, near Mumbai. She was taken to a deserted room at the train station and raped. Last week, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly abducted and raped in a group by a car-rickshaw driver and several of her associates in Pune, a technology center near Mumbai.
So far more than a dozen suspects have been arrested. Last year, two women from the marginalized Dalit community of India she died after being raped in a group in separate incidents within a week.