Gang rape shocks India as journalist is attacked on assignment in middle-class Mumbai suburb
Dean Nelson, The Telegraph | 13/08/23 | Last Updated: 13/08/23 2:54 PM ET
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AP Photo/Ajit SolankiMembers of All India Democratic Students Organization (DSO) hold placards and shout slogans condemning the brutal gang-rape of a woman on a moving bus in New Delhi during a protest in Ahmadabad, India, Monday, Dec. 24, 2012.
NEW DELHI â€" A photojournalist has been gang-raped while working on an assignment in a middle-class suburb of Mumbai.
The 22-year-old victim, a lifestyle magazine intern who was working on her first piece, was attacked on Thursday night. One man was arrested and police are searching for four other suspects.
The attack has reignited the disgust felt by Indians last year when Jyoti Singh Pandey, a 23-year-old student, was gang raped and murdered on a bus in Delhi, which prompted demonstrations and nationwide soul-searching.
AP Photo/Mumbai PoliceA composite of Mumbai Police sketches of the accused in the gang rape
The Mumbai victim was with a male colleague in Lower Parel, a former industrial area, when she was harassed by two men who attacked and tied up her male colleague when he objected.
According to police, the woman was dragged into a derelict mill where she was assaulted and raped by five men, believed to be drug addicts. A spokesman said the victim was working on an article about the area. “They were confronted by some men, who asked the woman photographer whether she had permission to take pictures of the mill compound,†the spokesman said.
“An argument broke out and the two men started abusing them and they were joined by few more. They assaulted the male and tied him up. They took the victim inside a building and gang-raped her. She was threatened and attacked with broken glass bottles.â€
AP Photo / Rafiq MaqboolPhotojournalists hold placards as they protest against the gang rape of a 22-year-old woman photojournalist in Mumbai India, Friday, Aug 23, 2013
The woman was reported to be in a stable condition in hospital. She is believed to have undergone a medical procedure for internal injuries but they were not considered serious.
Campaigners for women’s safety voiced their anger and sense of betrayal that little had been done to stop sexual violence since the Delhi attack in December.
They said that a bill to improve safety for women and guarantee equal rights following the Delhi gang-rape last year had been “buried and forgottenâ€, and that there had been a retrenchment in attitudes, with women being blamed for their choice of clothes or accused of making false claims of rape.
AP Photo/Rafiq MaqboolIndian policemen inspect the site where a 22-year-old woman was gang raped in Mumbai India, Friday, Aug. 23, 2013
Nilanjana Roy, a leading campaigner, said the rape sent a “dire message to women of any class who move out and work in public spacesâ€.
Ranjana Kumari, a women’s rights activist, blamed the government and judiciary for failing to bring rapists to justice. “There is a sense of impunity. The response system is not there, no example of the law being enforced.â€
