Salon.com > delhi

5-year-old rape victim’s condition improving

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:37:00 +0000

NEW DELHI (AP) — The condition of a 5-year-old girl who was raped, tortured and then left alone in a locked room for two days has improved, a doctor said, as protests continued in India's capital over the authorities' handling of the case.

The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. But D.K. Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said Sunday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.

Police say the girl went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.

A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi. After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody Sunday and was being questioned, police said.

The attack came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

Delhi gang rape trial sparks Indian media frenzy

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:29:00 +0000

NEW DELHI, India — Across town from the district courthouse, employees of Ambedkar University’s Center for Community Knowledge argued about India’s most infamous trial.

“The defense lawyers are saying, ‘well, you know, she was out late,’” said Ranjani Prasad, 24, gesturing with her hands and clearly irritated.

Her co-worker, 26-year-old Anoushka Mathews, nodded thoughtfully and crossed her arms. “It might actually work,” she said. “The judge might listen to that.”

On trial are four of the six men accused of gang raping a young woman on a New Delhi bus in December, a crime that made headlines around the world and forced a typically uninterested Indian judicial system to take action.

Steubenville vs. Delhi: A tale of two coverages

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 16:15:00 +0000

BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. — The bad news just keeps coming: the gang rape of a medical student in India resulting in her death; the rape and murder of a 9-year-old girl in Pakistan; a Swiss tourist gang-raped, again in India.

The latest headline-grabbing case in the United States involves the prolonged and public assault on a 16-year-old girl by two high-school football stars in Steubenville, Ohio. The pair was found guilty. One was sentenced to a minimum of one year in a juvenile detention center; the other to two years.

The Ohio case has caused outrage on many levels; but it also raises important questions of media reporting on rape.

Does the publicity surrounding such an incident make it less likely that similar crimes will occur in the future? Or, conversely, does it re-victimize someone who has already undergone significant trauma, and further discourage the reporting of sex crimes?

And, last but not least, what does the Steubenville case say about sexual violence in the United States as opposed to the rest of the world?

Body of Delhi gang rape suspect returned to family

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:57:00 +0000

NEW DELHI (AP) — The body of a man who died in a New Delhi jail while in the midst of a high-profile rape trial was released to his family Tuesday after a post-mortem exam aimed at determining whether he committed suicide or was killed.

Ram Singh, 33, was found dead at New Delhi's Tihar Jail early Monday, in a small cell he shared with three other prisoners. Authorities said he hanged himself, but his family and lawyer insisted foul play was involved. A magistrate is investigating.

The Press Trust of India, citing police sources, reported that the initial post mortem showed Singh died due to hanging and suggested he committed suicide.

Singh was facing the death penalty in his trial for the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a New Delhi bus, a crime that horrified Indians and galvanized many to protest against the treatment of women here. Four other men and a juvenile remain on trial for the attack.

Officials from the jail officially informed the court Tuesday that Singh committed suicide, according to A.P. Singh, a defense lawyer in the case. The jail was expected to file a more detailed report to the court Thursday, he said.

Man accused in Delhi gang rape case commits suicide

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 11:09:00 +0000

NEW DELHI (AP) — The main suspect in the gang rape and fatal beating of a woman on a New Delhi bus, an attack that horrified Indians and set off national protests, committed suicide in jail Monday, police officials said.

Ram Singh, who is accused of driving the bus on which the 23-year-old student was raped and fatally assaulted by a group of six men in December, hanged himself with his own clothes, said G. Sudhakar, the top police official at Tihar jail.

Singh, along with four other men on trial with him on rape, murder and abduction charges, had been under a suicide watch, another jail official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. He said the five were being held in separate cells in separate buildings at the jail.

If convicted, the men could face the death penalty. The sixth accused is being tried and jailed separately because he is a juvenile.

Singh's lawyer, A. P. Singh, confirmed his client's death, saying he died at 5:30 a.m. He alleged that police maleficence led to his client's death.

"What do you mean killed himself? He has been killed in prison," Singh said.

Lawyers for the men have previously accused police of beating confessions out of their clients.

Lawyer: Delhi gang rape suspects were “tortured” into confession

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:25:00 +0000

NEW DELHI, India — A lawyer who plans to defend the men accused of raping and fatally wounding a young woman in Delhi claims they were tortured by police.

"All these people have been tortured badly," Manohar Lal Sharma, who intends to represent three of the six suspects, told reporters this morning.

"It's under pressure that they have made statements in court," he added. "Evidence has been manipulated to calm the anger among people."

Sharma alleged that police sexually assaulted one of his clients, 22-year-old Mukesh Singh, with a stick and "urinated in his mouth," Reuters reported.

He added that the suspects now face abuse from other inmates in the Delhi jail where they're awaiting trial.

A spokesman for the jail denied that, telling the BBC that "their safety is guaranteed."

Delhi gang rapists tried to run over victim

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:17:00 +0000

New details are emerging in the horrific gang rape that caused the death of a female student in Delhi, India.

The gang of assailants who allegedly brutally assaulted and raped the 23-year-old aboard a private bus would have run her over if her boyfriend had not pulled her out of the way just in time, reported Agence France-Presse.

The severely injured medical student, who has not been named, was airlifted after initial surgery in Delhi to a hospital in Singapore, where she died Saturday after extensive organ failure. Her boyfriend, whom friends say she was planning to marry, was also was beaten and thrown off the bus on which the two were traveling.

UN chief urges India to act on rape crisis

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 17:20:00 +0000

The body of a 23-year-old woman who died in hospital from injuries sustained in a brutal gang-rape was cremated Sunday. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in India in the past week to protest Indian authority's treatment of rape and rape victims. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon today called upon the government to enact changes to protect women.

"Every girl and woman has the right to be respected, valued and protected," Ban said in a statement in which he expressed "deep sorrow" at news of the young woman's death and called for "further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice".