PhOtOs-India's Outrage over Rapes/Hanged Girls
BBC, 30 May 2014
India Gang Rapes: Outrage over Police 'Discrimination' By Divya Arya, BBC Hindi, Badau There is outrage over police inaction in a village in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where two teenage girls were gang-raped and hanged from a tree. The father of one victim says he was ridiculed by police when he sought help in finding his missing daughter. He said that when policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they "refused to look for my girl". At least three men, including one policeman, have been arrested in connection with the incident. Relatives have complained that police refused to help find the missing girls, aged 14 and 16, who were cousins from a low caste. "When I went to the police station, the first thing I was asked was my caste. When I told them what my caste was, they started abusing me," the father of one of the girls told the BBC. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...9_75190707.jpg Crowds gathered where the girls' bodies were found, as Joanna Jolly reports Villagers accuse the local police of 'caste' discrimination Divisions between India's castes run deep. Violence is often used by upper castes to instil fear in lower castes. Although both the victim and the accused belonged to a caste grouping known as 'Other Backward Classes', the victims were lower in that hierarchy. The victims had apparently gone out to relieve themselves as they had no toilet at home. Campaigners have highlighted the lack of sanitation in rural areas as being a risk to women's security as well as their health, as they are often attacked when having to go out to go the toilet, particularly at night. Further Suspects Hunted Police said two men had been arrested for the rape and murder of the girls. A constable was also detained for conspiring with the suspects and for dereliction of duty, authorities said, adding they were looking for one more suspect and one constable. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...21_line976.jpg Quote:
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...aun4640514.jpg Senior police official Atul Saxena said there would be a "thorough investigation" into the allegations of caste discrimination by police. People in Katra Shahadatganj, a town in Badaun district where the incident took place, say caste "plays an important role in social affairs" in the community. One resident, named only as Teerath, said: "If media hadn't come here the police wouldn't have done anything." http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...21_line976.jpg http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...13f52547a6.jpg Rape cases that have shocked India Quote:
A neighbour of one of the victims said the police "discriminated" against people from the lower castes in the town. "Even though the police has suspended some constables, the ones who replace them would not be any better," he said. http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/image...61_village.jpg Most of the people in the village are farmers or farm labourers and many live in poverty But Mr Saxena denied that caste biases played any part in "influencing police behaviour" in the state. "The police follows its rule book and considers all criminals equal before the law. There might be one or two cases like this one and we will make sure that the culprit doesn't go scot-free," he said. Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. The government tightened laws on sexual violence last year after widespread protests following the attack. Fast-track courts were brought to the fore to deal with rape and the death penalty was also brought in for the most extreme cases. Some women's groups argue that the low conviction rate for rape should be challenged with more effective policing rather than stiffer sentences. |
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