Shocking violence against women continues unabated.
By The American Bazaar Staff
NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh continues to face severe problems with rape and murder against its women, with four more cases occurring over the last week that have sent that state’s citizens asking who they can turn to for help.
On Thursday, police in a Moradabad village within the state found a young girl hanging from a tree, in a scene eerily similar to that of the two teenage Dalit cousins who were found raped and hanged just two weeks earlier. The girl’s name and exact age were not released, but police said that a post-mortem is currently being conducted, and that they are currently looking for suspects. Reports said that was 16 years old.
While it could possibly be an honor killing, police have ruled out that she was raped prior to her death, saying that the evidence at the scene and on the body does not support such a conclusion.
A similar case happened near the Ranipur area of the state, in which a 45 year-old woman was also found hanging from a tree. The woman, also unidentified, was found having some of her clothes torn off, and police say that indications are that she was gang-raped before having been hung.
The Press Trust of India reports that the woman comes from a low caste, and that she went missing from her home on Tuesday night. She was ultimately found dead on Wednesday. The woman had left town for Lucknow earlier in the week, but was called back by her son after the latter found out that his wife had given birth.
Police believe that it was en route back home that she was abducted, raped, and killed. Her mobile, which became unreachable a short while after the woman called her son to pick her up on her journey, was found near her body. The family has reportedly given police five names that they suspect were involved, and police are actively investigating the rape.
In Sitapur, a 21 year-old woman was allegedly raped by her lover, a 23 year-old man, after an altercation that was broken up by the police. The woman accused her lover, as well as two other men, of raping her at a tempo stand. The police have taken the woman’s lover into custody, while the victim is said to be recovering from the incident, which occurred on Thursday.
Another shocking case is of one woman who claims she was gang-raped by four police officers inside of a police station.
A woman in UP’s Hamirpur district claims that on Monday night, she went to the local police station to bargain for the release of her husband, who was being held in lock-up. When the woman refused to take a bribe that was offered to her – what this bribe actually was, has not been disclosed – she alleges that the Station House Officer (SHO) and three other men assaulted her.
The woman, who has gone unidentified, filed the rape complaint with the station’s senior officer shortly afterward. Local reports indicate that the SHO has been arrested, but as of Thursday, the other three men are currently on the run. Police are mountain a full-scale investigation, in addition to looking for the three men, and have promised swift justice if the claims are, in fact, true.