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A 20-year-old mother-of-one was gang raped and tortured before she was dragged through a jeering crowd that attacked her.
Police arrested 11 people, including nine women and minors, after the horrific scenes on Wednesday in Delhi, India.
The woman was reportedly abducted from her home by four men and raped.
Her head was shaved and her face blackened with soot before she was paraded on foot as the crowd jeered her.
The gang rape was allegedly an act of revenge by the family of a teenage boy who took his own life last November after the woman, who is married and has a three-year-old son, turned him down.
WARNING DISTRESSING CONTENT
A 20-year-old mother-of-one (centre, in pink) was gang raped and tortured before she was dragged through a crowd in Delhi, India
People were seen filming the attack on their phones as she was struck and jeered at
A huge crowd lined the streets as the young mother was forced on a humiliating parade
The boy’s family had reportedly threatened the woman before, forcing her to move home.
The victim’s sister, 18, said the teenage boy had fallen in love with her and his family blamed the 20-year-old woman for his death.
‘[He] fell in love with her,’ she told NewsLaundry. ‘He used to keep calling and asking her to leave her husband and be with him. She would always refuse.’
Her face was reportedly blackened by soot and she was forced to wear a ‘garland of slippers’
People smiled as she was lead through the crowd by a woman dressed in orange. Police said they had arrested 11 people, including nine women
Footage went viral of the victim being hauled through the streets while being hit and jeered.
Responding to the video, women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana said: ‘The incident in Delhi’s Kasturbanagar left me speechless.
‘Some women kept walking her around for two hours! All the women involved must be arrested and severely punished.’
Delhi police said they were investigating and expected to arrest more people soon.
Women’s rights activist Yogita Bhayana (pictured left at a previous anti-rape protest) said the gang-rape and parade ‘left me speechless’ and called for the arrest of all involved
The city’s chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, said the attack was ‘shameful’.
The victim is thought to be in a stable condition and is being guarded by police in a safe house in Delhi.
India is known for having an endemic issue around sexual violence, particularly rape, which gained prominence after the horrific 2012 Delhi gang rape on board a bus during which a female student was killed.
Though the issue frequently makes headlines in India following that attack, tens of thousands of rapes are still reported each year – with many tens of thousands more suspected to go un-reported.
Despite pledges by politicians and police chiefs to take offences more seriously, the conviction rate for reported rapes in India remains below 30 per cent and has done for at least the last decade.
India also has a particular problem with sexual violence against minors, with around a fifth of victims in any given year being under the age of 18.
Source: dailymail
