Rape in India: longer- term statistics, analyses
This is a collection of newspaper articles selected for the excellence of their content. |
India vis-a-vis the rest of the world
In absolute numbers
GlobalPost: a distant no. 2 to the USA
In absolute terms India has the second highest number of reported rapes in the world (around 22,000) compared to the USA's "more than 80,000 cases of rape reported to the police from 2004 to 2010," according to GlobalPost. However, it adds, " But the US Justice Department estimates 300,000 American women are raped every year, and the Centers for Disease Control puts the number much higher at 1.3 million."
That is why estimates differ for most countries.
GlobalPost further states, " When looking at reported rape cases per capita, Australia, Botswana and Lesotho rank highest. But tallying sheer totals, Europe and the Americas consistently top the charts."
22,172 rapes in 2010;24,923 in 2012
According to Wikipedia the following number of rapes took place in India in the years between 2004 and 2010.
|
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
|
18233 |
18359 |
19348 |
20737 |
21467 |
21397 |
22172 |
If we take the 2010 figure, the highest of these seven years (2004-2010), it works out to 60.7 rapes a day; 2.53 rapes every hour; or one rape every 23.7 minutes, in a country pf 1.2 billion people.
According to India's NCRB there were 24,923 rapes in 2012
Rapes (per capita) (2008/ 2009) by country
India not in NationMaster's Worst 50
NationMaster's list of the 50 countries with the highest number of rapes per 1,000 of population in 2008 (in some cases, 2009) is as follows. It does not include India in the Top 50.
1 Lesotho 2 New Zealand 3 Belgium 4 Iceland 5 Norway 6 Israel 7 Finland 8 Chile 9 Mongolia 10 Ireland 11 Kazakhstan 12 Estonia 13 Luxembourg 14 Denmark 15 Germany 16 Argentina 17 Czech Republic 18 Mauritius 19 Lithuania 19 Kyrgyzstan 21 Moldova 22 Russia 23 Slovenia 24 Hungary 24 Romania 24 Poland 27 Latvia 28 Oman 29 Croatia 30 Belarus 30 Morocco 32 Slovakia 33 Bulgaria 34 Portugal 34 Bahrain 34 Liechtenstein 37 Malta 37 Philippines 39 Cameroon 39 Cyprus 41 Sierra Leone 42 Greece 43 Kenya 44 Canada 45 Japan 46 Maldives 47 Guinea 48 Azerbaijan 49 Armenia 50 Egypt
India not among HEUNI's worst 28 countries; South Asia is third safest
HEUNI took statistics from various 21st century years. Its list of the 28 countries with the highest incidence of rape is as follows. It does not include India:
Mexico (worst);
Republic of Korea
Mongolia
Namibia
Israel
Belize
France
Iceland
Norway
Scotland
El Salvador
Peru
Papua New Guinea
Panama
England and Wales
Northern Ireland
Belgium
Barbados
Nicaragua
United States of America
New Zealand
Zimbabwe
Sweden
Suriname
Jamaica
Canada
Swaziland
Australia had the lowest incidence of rape in this list of the world's 28 worst.
HEUNI's ranking for the best (least rape-prone in per capita terms) and worst regions of the world is:
Central Asia and Transcaucasian countries (best); Near and Middle East/ South West Asia; South Asia (third best); North Africa; Southeast Europe; East and South East Asia; East Africa; East Europe; West & Central Europe; Latin America and Caribbean; Oceania; Southern Africa; North America (worst).
Incidence of rape in UK, USA is more than 15 times higher
614.4 million Women in India ensure safety for women tourists
TravelAndTourWorld Tuesday, August 27, 2013
India is one of the largest populated countries in the world with a population of over 1.27 billion people. With nearly half of her population being women, the country has one of the largest woman populations in the world at around 614.4 million.
According to the NCRB [India’s National Crime Records Bureau], 24,923 rape cases were reported countrywide in 2012 in India. A shocking number, definitely, isn’t that a trend worldwide? Are not women being assaulted all over the world? Actually women are safe in India just like they are in any other part of the world….maybe more so if statistics are to be believed…
Countries like South Africa lead in crimes against women.
Of every 100,000 people
132.4 women are raped in South Africa, while
the number is 63.5 for Sweden and
28.8 for UK.
USA also has a figure of 27.3,
Australia 28.6 and
New Zealand 25.8. Compared to them
India has a figure of 1.8
Do we infer from all these incidents that these places are unsafe for visitation by women?…
Women tourists are travelling to remote Indian villages regularly and they return with memorable and good experiences. A few cases do not mar the entire nation.
Every incidence of violence or rape reported is taken up with strict action by the law enforcement agencies of India and the assailant are subjected to adequate punishment just like it happens anywhere else in the world….
The Lancet: India and Bangladesh safest
1 in 14 girls is sexually assaulted’
London: New research to be published on Wednesday by the medical journal The Lancet on sexual violence shows India and Bangladesh have far lesser cases of rape and assault on women than developed countries like New Zealand or Australia. Worldwide, one in 14 women (7.2%) aged 15 years or less has been sexually assaulted at least once in their lives.
The Lancet looking at the prevalence of non-partner sexual violence in 56 countries found that countries with the highest rates of sexual violence are those in central sub-Saharan Africa (21%; DR Congo), southern sub-Saharan Africa (17.4%; Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe) and Australasia (16.4%; New Zealand and Australia). Countries in North Africa/Middle East (4.5%; Turkey) & south Asia (3.3%; India, Bangladesh) reported the lowest rates.
White House Council on Women and Girls: Nearly one in five women has been raped
Nearly one in five women -- up to 22 million people -- have been raped in their lifetime, according to a report issued Wednesday by the White House Council on Women and Girls.
President Obama said he has assigned a task force to address especially serious problems on college campuses where -- again -- one in five women reports being a victim of a sexual assault..
The report cited "the dynamics of college life" as a factor, noting that many victims are "are abused while they're drunk, under the influence of drugs, passed out, or otherwise incapacitated."
This epidemic of sexual assaults hurts all Americans, Obama said as he pushed new efforts to combat these crimes he called an affront to "basic decency and humanity."
The commission also recommended improved law enforcement -- including higher arrest, prosecution, and conviction rates -- as well as changes in a culture that too often turns away from the problem.
Citing government data, the report from the White House Council on Women and Girls says that 1 in 71 men -- nearly 1.6 million -- have been raped. Nearly 98% of assailants are men. Repeat attacks are common.
While women of all races are targeted, some groups are more targeted than others: 33.5% of multiracial women have been raped, according to the report, as have 27% of American Indian and Alaska Native women, 15% of Hispanic, 22% of black and 19% of white women.
Most victims are young. The report said nearly half the women who survived were raped before they were 18; more than one-quarter of male survivors suffered attacks before the age of ten.
Wikipedia figures: India safer than most countries
According to Wikipedia the probability of rape (per 100,000 of population):
In 2004 was, India 1.6; Japan 1.7; Canada 1.8; Republic of Korea 13.5; Denmark 10.4; the UK 26.4; and the USA 32.3
By 2010, India’s record had worsened to 1.8; and UK to 28.8. Japan’s record improved to 1.0; Denmark’s to 6.4 (2009); and USA’s to 27.3.
Wikipedia, using regional groupings, lists India at no. 56, behind
41 Canada; 42 USA; 47 Hong Kong; 48 Japan; 50 Korea; 52 the Philippines; 53 Singapore; 54 Thailand; and 55 Bangladesh.
Maldives 57; Nepal 58 and Sri Lanka 59, follow. (Note: Wikipedia’s list seems to be region-wise, rather than according to the absolute or relative number of rapes.)
Life term only if rape is brutal
From the archives of The Times of India 2010
Life term only if rape is brutal, else 10 yrs: HC
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has said that the offence of rape should be accompanied with acts of brutality to merit maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the guilty. Reducing the punishment awarded to a tutor from life imprisonment to 10 years, a bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Suresh Kait said the act of rape should be brutal to attract maximum punishment. The accused had raped his minor student in August 2004.
According to the FIR that was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s mother, she was shocked to witness the crime on returning from market as her daughter took tuitions from the accused.
Interestingly, with solid medical evidence and the testimony of the mother against him, the accused Arun Kumar sought leniency in his sentencing. Kumar pleaded for a lighter prison term saying life sentence was too harsh a verdict.
HC noted that there were no aggravating circumstances in the case and reduced Kumar’s term.
‘‘Counsel for the accused concedes that in view of the evidence, even excluding the DNA report, there is tell tale evidence of the appellant being the tormentor of the young girl,’’ HC observed pointing out just because the victim was a minor, it doesn’t mean the accused be given life term.
‘‘Brutality at the time of rape has to be factored in. If the rape is accompanied by acts of brutality, higher sentence should be imposed,’’ HC said.
‘Stranger rape’
(Rapes committed by men who were strangers to the victim)
‘Stranger rape’ goes [up from 2%] to over 10% (in India)
Rukmini Shrinivasan TIG 2013/06/15
New Delhi: Was 2012 the most dangerous year for women in the capital in the recent past? One statistic would seem to suggest so: the proportion of rapes committed by men who were strangers to the victim rose above 2% for the first time in five years to cross 10%.
‘Stranger rape’ of the type that occurred in Delhi on December 16 last year tends to form the basis for women’s perceptions of public safety, but is relatively rare. Rape in India, as in the rest of the world, remains overwhelmingly a crime committed by persons known to the victim. Atthe all-India level,lessthan 2% – 453 in all — of the nearly 25,000 rapes registered during the year 2012 were committed by strangers, data released on Wednesday by the National Crime Records Bureau show. In Madhya Pradesh, the state that consistently records the largest number of rapes, all of the 3,425 assaultswereby persons known to the victim.
In Delhi too, the proportion of stranger rapes has hovered close to the 2% mark over the last five years. However 2012 NCRB data for Delhi show that 63 of the 585 rapes that were committed in 2012, or nearly 11%,wereby strangers to the victim.
While data for Delhi have been stable over the previous years, large swings between years for a few other cities raise some doubts over the accuracy of NCRB data. Bangalore is the most extreme example of this: the proportion of ‘stranger rapes’ in the southern city swung from 77% to 0% between two consecutive years, 2009 and 2010. Karnataka’s crime statistics chief hadearlier toldTOIthat it was probably a problem with the numbers. “In Bangalore and Karnataka, as in the rest of the country, rape by strangers is a very small part of total rapes,’ Praveen Sood, additional DGP, Karnataka State Crime Records Bureau, had told TOI. A spokesperson for the Delhi police said he could not comment without the exact numbers in front of him.
It’s too soon to draw conclusions based on one year’s data, agreedKalpana Vishwanath of the Delhi-based women’s rights organization Jagori. “It’s undoubtedly a fact that there is crime against women, but there also seems to be some slight increase in the last six months. There is greater family and community supportto girlswhowantto speak out, and a little less of blaming the victim,” Vishwanath said.
Victims of rape also tend to be younger in cities than in the rest of the India, more so in Delhi. In the cities for which NCRB provides data, justover half the rape victims were aged 18 or less. The corresponding all-India figure was just 36.5%. In Delhi, 329 of the 585 victimes, or about 56.2% were aged 18 or less.
Worldwide: 31% of female victims raped by a stranger
According to the U.S. Department of Justice: (All statistics are taken from: Violenceagainst Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)
One of every four rapes take place in a public area or in a parking garage.
31% of female victims reported that the offender was a stranger.
Statistics
Rapes in India's 5 biggest cities
More rapes in Delhi in 2012 than 4 metros put together
Dwaipayan Ghosh TNN 2013/06/14
New Delhi: Delhi’s shame continues. The National Crime Records Bureau’s report for 2012 iterates through statistics what every woman in the city knows by experience — that it remains the most unsafe for women among 88 important cities of India.
With 5,959 cases of crime against women registered last year, Delhi accounted for a staggering 14.88% of all women-related crimes reported from these 88 cities. No other city even came close to matching Delhi’s notorious record.
Bangalore was a distant second, with a share of 6.18% of all crimes against women in urban India. Next came Kolkata (5.66%) and then Mumbai (4.86%).
No crime reveals Delhi’s violence towards women better than rape. The number of rapes in the capital last year (706) was more than those reported in four other metros — Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai (484) — put together. The staggeringly high figure can’t be explained by the capital’s sprawl. For, the female population of Delhi is 75.76 lakh, lower than Mumbai (85.20 lakh) and not much higher than Kolkata (67.93 lakh).
Rapes rise 200% in Kolkata in 5 years [2008-13]
Dwaipayan Ghosh, TNN | Sep 29, 2013
KOLKATA: The City of 'bhoi' is indeed living its worst nightmare. The number of rapes has almost doubled in the city since 2008 and molestation tripled, says the latest data of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The last NCRB study had ranked Bengal No. 1 in crimes against women.
Cruelty towards women has seen a 200% increase - from 405 in 2008 to 865 in 2012 - giving the city the ignominy of topping cases under Section 498A IPC. Even dowry death, which was on the decline in the late Nineties in Bengal, has seen a slight increase in Kolkata.
In 2008, 35 rape cases were reported in Kolkata, which rose to 42 the next year. Although it dropped sharply to 32 in 2010, the very next year it shot up to 42, and 2012 was the worst year with 68 rapes cases registered in the city.
Molestation cases increased even more alarmingly, from 81 in 2008 to 133 in 2010. And again, 2012 was the worst year, with 377 molestation incidents reported.
Some incidents this month itself raises a number of questions. A Class-X student of a leading south Kolkata school was molested while returning home in the Topsia-Tiljala area. A couple of days later, a young girl was raped in the same area. A woman returning home with her fiance was molested by bike-borne men near AJC Bose Road flyover and two female employees of an eatery in China Town were kidnapped inside a taxi and molested by three men.
Earlier, a 26-year-old woman was kidnapped and raped inside a moving car and a Frenchwoman was molested by a bike gang in the Lake Gardens area.
Child rapes/ Sexual assault on children
‘336% spurt in child rape cases’
By TIMES NEWS NETWORK, The Times of India , 22 April 2013 The Times of India
Even as the national Capital protests against the heinous nature of the five-year-old child’s rape, an independent report, based on National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, shows that India is no country for children.
The report says a total of 48,338 child rape cases was recorded between 2001 and 2011, and the nation saw an increase of 336% of such cases from 2001 (2,113) to 2011 (7,112).
The report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), however, warns that this is only the “tip of the iceberg” as the large majority of child rape cases are not reported to police while children regularly become victims of other forms of sexual assault too. Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of child rape cases with 9,465 cases between 2001 and 2011, followed by Maharashtra (6,868), Uttar Pradesh (5,949) and Andhra Pradesh (3,977). Delhi, which reported 2,909 cases, ranked sixth on the list.
The report, “India’s Hell Holes: Child Sexual Assault in Juvenile Justice Homes”, which has been submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, says that many of the cases take place in juvenile homes.
“It will not be an understatement to state that juvenile justice homes, established to provide care and protection as well as reintegration, rehabilitation and restoration of the juveniles in conflict with law and children in need of care and protection, have become India’s hell holes where inmates are subjected to sexual assault and exploitation, torture and ill-treatment apart from being forced to live in inhuman conditions. The girls remain the most vulnerable. It matters little whether the juvenile justice homes are situated in Delhi or in mofussil towns,” said Suhas Chakma, director, ACHR.
The 56-page report also highlights 39 cases of systematic and often repeated sexual assault on children in juvenile justice homes. Out of the 39 cases, 11 were reported from governmentrun juvenile justice homes, while in one case a CWC member was accused of sexual harassment during counselling sessions.
The remaining 27 cases were reported from private or NGO-run juvenile justice homes.
Under-reporting--or, possibly, over-reporting--of rapes in India?
Unprecedented surge in filing of false rape cases
False cases behind Delhi's tag of rape capital: Court
PTI | Jul 27, 2013
The court said that after the Delhi gang rape [of December 16, 2012], it led to an atmosphere where "the mere statement of a lady that she has been raped, came to be taken as the gospel truth, on the basis of which the accused was arrested and chargesheeted".
Tougher rape law leading to increase in false cases?
Sana Shakil,TNN | Feb 22, 2014
NEW DELHI: Fears have been expressed that strengthening of the law against sexual offenses after the Nirbhaya case has also led to an increase in false cases. Now, there's some evidence to support this claim. Statistics on the disposal of rape cases in Delhi's trial courts show a sharp increase in the acquittal rate after the infamous December 16, 2012, gang-rape.
While in 2012, the acquittal rate in rape cases was 46%, in the first eight months of 2013 (for which exact figures are available) it shot up to 75%. Sources said acquittals remain high this year as well, accounting for around 70% of the cases.
Legal experts say the high acquittal rates are because of a spurt in the number of false rape cases being filed. The observations of judges in acquittal cases also bear this out.
"This is an unfortunate trend. In many cases, women come up with the plea that they had registered the case out of anger and due to misunderstanding," said additional public prosecutor A T Ansari, one of the main prosecutors in the Nirbhaya case. A senior woman lawyer, who did not wish to be named, said, "It's sad but true. Registration of false cases is rampant and hence, the alarming acquittal rate. The new law is being misused because of the widened definition of rape."
Experts feel the amended law is "widely-worded" and "ambiguous" in parts and lends itself to misuse. "In around 90% of acquittal cases, the victim turns hostile. Mostly, it turns out to be a case of a relationship gone bad. The sex is consensual but the victim claims that the consent was given on account of promise of marriage," said a senior public prosecutor on condition of anonymity.
Other reasons for registering false cases seem to range from extortion, recovery of dues, property disputes and extra-marital affairs.
Laws dealing with sexual offences against women were strengthened post Nirbhaya incident to provide speedy justice and greater security to women. Ironically, the conviction rates were higher when the laws were less stern.
Explaining how the new laws were more vulnerable to misuse, a former senior prosecutor said the consent of the victim, which had earlier been a debatable issue among judges, was settled with a clarification in Section 375 of IPC. It specified that absence of physical resistance cannot be construed as consent. "I feel there should have been an exception to the false promise of marriage concept because that is the excuse which is mostly taken up by women to register false cases even though the sex was consensual," the senior lawyer said.
Though there is a provision to prosecute people for perjury if they lie in court, its rarely exercised to prosecute women in these false cases. "The courts generally don't use this discretion because they don't want genuine victims to be wary of approaching courts for justice," said senior advocate Aman Lekhi.
Worried over the disturbing trend of false complaints, even fast track courts trying cases of sexual offenses have been raising concerns over the matter. In July last year, while acquitting a 75-year-old man of the charges of raping his maid, a fast track court observed that the capital has earned the notoriety of India's rape capital because of the increase in false rape cases being registered in the city. The alleged victim in this case had admitted that she registered the case because she wanted to usurp the accused's property.
In January this year, additional sessions judge Virender Bhat expressed the need for empowering courts to order compensation for persons who get implicated in false cases. The judge, while acquitting a man of rape charges registered by a married woman in March 2013, remarked it was "a voluntary liaison" which was turned into a rape charge after the woman's husband pressured her into lodging a complaint.
Recently, another fast track court judge, ASJ Nivedita Anil Sharma observed that there was a trend of registering false complaints by women who wanted to save themselves embarrassment after an extra-marital affair.
False cases give Delhi the label of 'rape capital': Judge
NEW DELHI: False cases are the reasons behind labelling of Delhi as the 'rape capital', a court in Delhi has held while acquitting a 75-year-old man on the charge of sexually assaulting his maid after the woman turned hostile.
The court said after the December 16 gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus in Delhi, it led to the creation of an atmosphere that "the mere statement of a lady that she has been raped, came to be taken as the gospel truth, on the basis of which the accused was arrested and chargesheeted".
"This lead to an unprecedented surge in filing of false rape cases...It is these false cases which play havoc with the crime statistics, leading to the labelling of Delhi as a 'rape capital'," additional sessions judge Virender Bhat said, while acquitting Bhopal Sharma of the charge of sexually assaulting his maid.
The court observed that as acquittals in such cases are hardly ever reported, the falsely implicated persons lose their honour, dignity and status in the society and though these cannot be restored, "these victims" can be compensated so that they can start life afresh.
It also noted that "it is a matter of intense regret that even the frail, sick and aged persons are not spared from the false allegations of rape".
Gang-rape fabricated by television journalists
2 journalists held for staging Gzb gang rape
Purusharth Aradhak The Times of India
Ghaziabad: The case involving the alleged gang-rape of a Meerut-based woman in Ghaziabad took a dramatic the following day when police arrested two journalists working with a news channel on charges of framing the two people charged with the crime. Ghaziabad police claimed that the conspiracy was meticulously hatched and that the woman, before contacting police, had sexual intercourse with one of the journalists to establish rape in her medical examination. Police have lodged two FIRs in the matter, one against the two alleged rapists and the other against four persons including the two journalists on charges of extortion. The rape victim’s role is being scrutinized, Ghaziabad SSP Dharmender Singh said. “Links in the victim's story was missing and the two accused lodged a complaint of extortion by two journalists and two women including the rape victim on Thursday,” Singh said.
Bhopal Sharma and his maid (domestic employee)
The maid in her complaint had said a few days after she started working at Sharma's house in July 2012, he had raped her and after the incident, had promised to marry her.
Thereafter, he continued to have sexual relations with her on the pretext of marrying her, the maid had alleged, adding that she lodged the police complaint on October 11, 2012 after Sharma expressed his unwillingness to keep his promise.
However, during the trial, the woman turned hostile and said she had levelled false allegations on the advice of Anita and another person Kuldeep.
Live-in relationships, failed, account for 21.6% of Gurgaon rape complaints
It gets knotty when they don't tie the knot
Sanjay Yadav, TNN | Jul 24, 2013
GURGAON: The city is witnessing the emergence of a trend in intimacy with eight live-in relationships ending in rape complaints in the last three months. These eight rape cases are a sizeable percentage of the total 37 cases in the past six months.
'The majority of the cases do not fit into the conventional bracket of rape'
Attention has once again been drawn to the security, legality and the apparent misuse of this much-professed institution of convenience. Gurgaon police arrest the accused without fail but a majority of the cases do not fit into the conventional bracket of rape.
When live-in relationships sour, it is usually because the women feel cheated by the fact that the alleged promise of marriage is not kept.
He raped her for two and a half years
On June 11 a woman, who worked as a software engineer in a Gurgaon-based company, accused her live-in partner of raping her for two and a half years on the pretext of marrying her. The victim was previously married to another man but left him to be with the accused and has a nine-month-old child from the relationship. Sector 40 police lodged an FIR and arrested the accused, who was later sent in judicial custody.
He raped her for six years
In another case, a 57-year-old CEO of a tour operator company was arrested by city police for allegedly raping his live-in partner. She accused her partner of raping her for six years on the pretext of marriage. The complainant, a 42-year-old owner of a spa-cum-salon in the city, had alleged that the CEO had shown her a fake divorce certificate to lure her. The accused, who was sent in judicial custody, was granted bail after some days.
Police officer raped her for three years on the false assurance of marriage
Woman accuses police officer of rape, moves HC for CBI probe
PTI | Feb 25, 2014
NEW DELHI: A young woman has moved the Delhi high court accusing a Delhi police officer of having raped her over the last three years on the false assurance of marriage and sought a CBI probe into the case.
Consensual sex turns into rape on not getting the employment promised
Court sees consent, frees rape accused
New Delhi: A trial court has acquitted a man of raping a woman saying physical relations between them were maintained with the girl’s consent. “The fact that she stayed with the accused, fully knowing that he was staying alone and used to cook meals for him and they both lived as husband and wife, do bring us to the conclusion that she consented to physical relations,” the court said.
Additional sessions judge Yogesh Khanna, however, convicted the man of wrongfully restraining and beating the woman. “The bare fact the prosecutrix knew that the accused is a married man and, (knowing she cannot marry him) yet continued to stay with him, making physical relations and not filing any police complaint shows that she had consented to such relations.” The accused was arrested after the woman, a cook, alleged that since September 2011, while she was living with him at his south Delhi flat, she was raped on several occasions by the accused on the assurance of getting her employed soon. TNN
He raped his sister-in-law repeatedly for two months while her sister was away
JNU student arrested for raping sister-in-law
New Delhi: A PhD scholar at JNU was held on Saturday for raping his sister-in-law.
The 16-year-old told police she was repeatedly raped by the accused, who is married to her elder sister, over two months and she became pregnant. The survivor, a Class VII student at a government school, had been living with the accused in Munirka area while her sister was with their parents in their village in UP.
The incident came to light when the girl was taken to hospital after she complained of stomach pain. Doctors said she was two months’ pregnant. The girl’s family had sent her to the capital for better education after the accused promised to take care of her.
Accused get bail soon
Unlike in other rape cases, the live-in partners accused of rape are usually out on bail soon.
"In many cases you find that the couples have been living together for almost a decade and one fine day the female partner wakes up and alleges rape. In many cases we do see that it's a frame-up but our hands are tied," a senior police officer told TOI on condition of anonymity.
When contacted, Alok Mittal, police commissioner, said, "If any complainant comes with a complaint of rape to us, we immediately lodge an FIR and arrest the accused. We present our investigation report in court and the court decides on the veracity of the allegations.
"It may be a new trend in live-in relationships, but on our part, we never delay lodging the FIR and arresting the accused. We do not sit in judgment on the allegation and do not make any subjective observation," the police commissioner said.
There were a couple of recent cases of fatality in live-in relationships that did not fit into the 'rape' trend. A Delhi Police inspector of the Special Cell (encounter specialist) and his live-in partner were found shot dead in suspicious circumstances at the woman's home in Ardee City in May. Earlier, a 24-year-old woman in a live-in relationship in rented accommodation near Sector 44 had committed suicide on April 14 by consuming a poisonous substance.
Definitions of rape unique to India
At least in Gurgaon 21.6% of all rape cases reported are of the type illustrated below.
Man rapes woman colleague for 3 yrs
A24-year-old woman from Rajkot had allegedly been raped for three years by her colleague in different parts of Gujarat on the promise of marriage. The woman is a diploma engineer and was in Surat since 2010. She was an employee of an online marketing firm for which Verma, too, worked. Her family stays in Rajkot. The woman was allegedly raped by the accused in hotels near Rajkot and other areas of the city. TNN
‘She was raped by him on several occasions'
Man freed of rape charge ‘
The Times of India TNN Oct 12, 2013
A trial court has acquitted a man, accused of assaulting a New Zealand-based divorcee and raping her on the false promise of marrying her, saying the woman "voluntarily" had sexual relations with him as she was in love and wanted to marry him.
Police arrested the man in March 2013. The woman had alleged that she was raped by him on several occasions since April 2011 on the false promise of marriage after she got divorce from her Indian husband in September 2010. The woman had said that she met the accused through her ex-husband in New Zealand and they both became friends. "The accused used to visit her house since 2009.
"It is, therefore, beyond any shadow of doubt that the victim indulged in sexual intercourse with the accused voluntarily as she was in love with him and wanted to marry him. The sexual intercourse between the two was with her consent," the court said.
Man rapes friend for nine years
Man rapes friend for nine years; case registered
Press Trust of India | Posted on Jul 21, 2013
A forty-year-old woman was allegedly raped and blackmailed by a loan agent-cum-trader for nine years in Hasanpura area of the city, police said on Sunday.
Victim living alone in the city had clearly mentioned that she had earlier friendship with the accused for nine years, and he used to visit her home too.
Accused was working as loan agent and was paying good interests on her money lent to customers, but all of sudden his intention turned bad, and committed rape on a number of occasions in the city hotels and her home, SHO said.
The accused had blackmail her with obscene pictures, police said, adding he had stolen some stamp papers and cheques from her house also.
Police inspector rapes woman for one month
In other countries this is called 'In flagrante delicto'
SHO 'rapes' junior's wife, probe ordered
Purusharth Aradhak, TNN | Jul 15, 2013
BULANDSHAHR: A police station in charge was caught raping a constable's wife inside the police station in Khurja on Sunday morning.
The victim lodged a complaint with the police
The victim's husband is posted in the police lines. On Sunday at 5am, when he returned to his quarter in the police station, he allegedly found his wife and the station house in-charge in a compromising state. On seeing her husband, the victim screamed and ran towards him. She told him that the police inspector had been raping her for the last one month.
Criminal raped her for 4 years, lured her with gold, clothes and promises of marriage
In most countries she would be called a gangster's moll or mistress. In India she is called a 'rape survivor.'
Mahanand raped me for 4 years, says victim
Preetu Nair & Rajeshree Nagarsekar, TNN May 23, 2009, 04.21am IST
PANAJI: A 23-year-old rape survivor revealed that dupatta killer Mahanand Naik raped her everyday for four years and then lured her with gold, clothes and promises of marriage. When she objected, he threatened her, she alleged.
"For four years, he wouldn't allow me to talk to anyone. If I talked to a man, he would threaten me. Two years ago I got a marriage proposal from Ponda. Mahanand went to the boy and told him that I am his girl', thereby destroying my marriage prospects," revealed [name concealed],.
Interestingly, Mahanand never beat her or tried to kill her. On the contrary, he lured her with promises of marriage, jewellery and clothes. "He gifted me clothes, gold jewellery and also promised to marry me. I had no option but to believe him as I had no one to turn to for help," she said.
He raped her 16 times over five years on the pretext of casting her in his films
In other countries this is called the 'casting couch'
Preeti Jain 'rape' case: Madhur Bhandarkar gets relief after 9 years
New Delhi, Mon Nov 05 2012
The Supreme Court today quashed the ongoing criminal proceedings of Bollywood film director Madhur Bhandarkar on allegations of rape levelled by actress Preeti Jain.
The actress had lodged a complaint with the Versova police in July 2004 alleging that Bhandarkar had raped her 16 times between 1999 and 2004 on the pretext of casting her as actress in his films.
She alleged Bhandarkar promised to marry her and to cast her in his films, but he went back on his promises later.
He ‘raped’ her for seven months in hotelrooms in tourist resorts all over India
22-yr-old UP girl accuses IAS officer of raping her
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Jaipur: A 22-year-old woman has lodged an FIR against IAS officer B B Mohanty, accusing him of raping and sexually exploiting her for seven months after promising to help her clear the civil services examination and later marry her.
The woman, who is from Uttar Pradesh and used to live in a Jaipur hostel, said the officer raped her for the first time at a flat occupied by him in the city on February 19 last year. She alleged that over the next few months Mohanty took her to several places — including Udaipur, Goa, Chennai and Bharatpur — where they stayed in hotels and he sexually exploited her.
SHO Mahesh Nagar Ramavtar said the IAS officer took the woman to his flat on February 17 and molested her that day and then raped her on February 19.
[Three months before her present accusation,] in November [2013], the woman had accused the 52-year-old owner of her hostel of raping her. Ramgopal Kumawat was arrested following the allegation. He is still in judicial custody.
He raped her every week or fortnight but later refused to marry her
Delhi Police official booked for rape
IANS | Feb 9, 2014
NEW DELHI: A Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector was booked for raping and making video clip of a woman.
On the order of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Tarun Yogesh, police lodged a First Information Report (FIR) last week against ASI Varun Jha on charges of raping and criminally intimidating the woman.
Considering the gravity of allegations against a police official, the court said the case be investigated by an officer of the rank of an Inspector, preferably a woman officer, and directed that the probe be carried out under the direct supervision of the assistant commissioner of police (ACP) concerned.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that she met Jha about three years back and the two became friendly. She said on the promise of marrying her, the police official established a physical relationship by forcing her, despite her objection.
"Thereafter, Jha continued raping her every week or fortnight upon false promise of marrying her," the woman said in her complaint. Later, Jha refused to marry her.
She said Jha made a video clip of their relationship on a mobile phone. He threatened to show the recording to her family if she tried to force him into marriage.
Intoxicated girl says she was 'gang-raped' by friends who used contraceptives
19-year-old girl 'gang-raped' in Raipur
Rashmi Drolia, TNN | Aug 26, 2013
RAIPUR: Civil Lines police, while patrolling late on Sunday night, found [a] girl in Shankar Nagar locality in a suspicious state. During questioning, she claimed that she was gang-raped by five youths, who took her to an isolated place.
The girl retracted from her statement on Monday while taking to the media, claiming that all the five youth, named in her statement, were her friends and they didn't rape her. However, the police searched the crime scene, as earlier described by the girl, and found contraceptives.
Police sources claimed that the girl might have been physically involved with her boyfriend who later called his friends, who later gang-raped her. Girl was under the influence of alcohol when police brought her to police station.
Civil Lines town inspector Manisha Thakur [arrested] the five accused [and released the names of all five to the media, tarnishing their reputations forever; the name of the girl who made the accusation was, as is the practice in India, kept a secret]. A case under Section 376 (2G) of the IPC was registered against the [five accused].
Five-year-old affair becomes rape when lover does not give her an apartment
Air hostess files rape charge
Sanjay Yadav, TNN | Oct 13, 2013
GURGAON: A 48-year-old property dealer has been arrested in Palam Vihar for allegedly raping a 29-year-old air hostess, who was a tenant in his house.
The victim claimed that she trusted her landlord, Rajiv Bagga, when he got intimate with her and promised to marry her. A source said that Bagga was already married twice and the victim had been involved with him since 2008. She had pleaded with him to marry her earlier but he had calmed her with the promise of gifting her a flat. Some days ago, when she got to know that the promised flat had already been sold by Bagga, she felt duped.
Kalka man rapes girl on the pretext of marriage
Kalka man rapes and blackmails 25-year-old
TNN | Jun 28, 2013
CHANDIGARH: A 25-year-old girl from Sector 40 was raped and blackmailed by a Kalka resident who threatened her with the leaking of an objectionable MMS.
Police said Chetan developed a physical relationship with the girl on the pretext of marriage and filmed her. When the victim talked to him about marriage after four months, he refused and stopped taking her calls.
Former lovers accused of rape
Man accused of 'raping' lover let off
TNN Sep 16, 2013
NEW DELHI: A man accused of raping a married woman on the false promise of marriage has been acquitted by a Delhi court, which observed it was a case of an "extramarital affair being converted into rape".
The court said the 25-year-old woman, who has four children, filed a false case against her lover to save herself from "embarrassment", after her husband found out about the affair.
"This trend of extramarital affairs being converted into rape has become common and many cases on similar allegations have been filed. When a woman is not in a capacity to marry another man, then why should her paramour be prosecuted, incarcerated and be tried for rape when it is actually an affair," said additional sessions judge Nivedita Anil Sharma [ a lady], adding that with changing times, the understanding of "morality" is also changing.
Man accused of raping former lover acquitted
Rebecca Samervel, TNN | Oct 2, 2013
MUMBAI: A sessions court on Tuesday acquitted a man accused of raping his former girlfriend and emailing her nude pictures to several employees of her company.
Special Judge Vrushali Joshi [ a lady] acquitted the accused after the prosecution failed to prove its case.
It was the prosecution's case that the accused (32) had raped and abused the 22-year-old woman on several occasions between June 2006 and December 2007. Defence advocate Amin Solkar argued that the sex was consensual and there was no evidence to show that the accused had actually sent the emails or pasted the pictures. "The camera from which the pictures were taken was actually recovered from the woman," Solkar said.
In her statement to the police, the woman said the duo had made attempts to elope and get married, but their plan did not materialize.
The woman claimed that she had found out that the accused was previously married. When confronted, he assured her that he would get a divorce.
Complaint Filed By Ex-Staffer After Sacking
MNC director accused of rape
Company Says Complaint Filed By Ex-Staffer After Sacking
Rao Jaswant Singh &Sanjay Yadav TNN
Gurgaon: A 32-year-old former employee of consultancy major Aon Hewitt has accused a director of the company of raping her inside his office chamber in the company’s Gurgaon office.
The woman, who was an operations manager at the company’s Noida branch but also spent time in the Gurgaon office, has alleged that the director often called her to his cabin and “indulged in activities which can be defined as rape according to the new legislation”. She also accused two other senior officials of calling her to their cabin and making her watch porn and molesting her.
When contacted, an Aon Hewitt spokesperson said in a mailed response: “(The woman) was terminated from employment on December 3, 2013. Following a complaint received, Aon Hewitt conducted an internal investigation which found that she had not adhered to the rules, regulations and policies of the company.
Life term only if rape is brutal
From the archives of The Times of India 2010
Life term only if rape is brutal, else 10 yrs: HC
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has said that the offence of rape should be accompanied with acts of brutality to merit maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the guilty. Reducing the punishment awarded to a tutor from life imprisonment to 10 years, a bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Suresh Kait said the act of rape should be brutal to attract maximum punishment. The accused had raped his minor student in August 2004.
According to the FIR that was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s mother, she was shocked to witness the crime on returning from market as her daughter took tuitions from the accused.
Interestingly, with solid medical evidence and the testimony of the mother against him, the accused Arun Kumar sought leniency in his sentencing. Kumar pleaded for a lighter prison term saying life sentence was too harsh a verdict.
HC noted that there were no aggravating circumstances in the case and reduced Kumar’s term.
‘‘Counsel for the accused concedes that in view of the evidence, even excluding the DNA report, there is tell tale evidence of the appellant being the tormentor of the young girl,’’ HC observed pointing out just because the victim was a minor, it doesn’t mean the accused be given life term.
‘‘Brutality at the time of rape has to be factored in. If the rape is accompanied by acts of brutality, higher sentence should be imposed,’’ HC said.
See also
Age of consent Crimes against women: India Juveniles, benefits and privileges of Juvenile delinquency in India Especially the section 'Rape by juveniles' Premarital sex
Rapes in India Rapes in India: court verdicts
Rapes in India: the legal position after 2013
