Two Indian MPs, 6 legislators face rape charges:

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Two MPs, 6 legislators face rape charges:

New Delhi: Two sitting MPs and six sitting legislators in different states were fielded by their parties despite cases of crimes against women pending against them, a think tank said on Thursday, four days after a 23-year-old medical student was gangraped in Delhi. Data compiled by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) showed that parties like the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) gave tickets to candidates with charges of rape and other atrocities against women in different states.

Referring to affidavits filed by lawmakers ahead of their election, ADR said MPs S Semmalai of the AIADMK from Salem constituency in Tamil Nadu and Suvendu Adhikari of the Trinamool Congress from Tamluk constituency in West Bengal declared that they were facing charges of cruelty and intent to outrage a woman's modesty. There were six legislators across state assemblies with rape charges against them, it said. Another 36 legislators declared that they were facing charges such as assault and molestation, it said.

The think tank said that out of the six legislators with rape cases, three were from Uttar Pradesh and members of the SP. They are: Sribhagwan Sharma, Anoop Sanda and Manoj Kumar Paras. The three other legislators facing rape charges were: Mohd Aleem Khan of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Jethabhai G Ahir of the BJP in Gujarat and Kandikunta Venkata Prasad of the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh.

The report showed that parties like the Congress, BJP, SP and BSP gave tickets to candidates with charges of rape.

Of the 36 legislators, who declared in their affidavits that they were facing charges of crimes against women, six were from the Congress, five from the BJP and three from the SP, ADR said. Uttar Pradesh has the maximum number of legislators (eight) who declared in their affidavits that they were facing charges of crimes against women, followed by Odisha and West Bengal with seven lawmakers each.

The think tank said 27 candidates with rape charges contested different state elections in the past five years.

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/two-mps-6-legislators-face-rape-charges-report/311637-37-64.html

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India: hundreds of men accused of sexual violence stand in elections

Figures show dozens facing criminal investigations for assault and other charges campaigning for national assembly

Jason Burke in Delhi

The Guardian, Friday 21 December 2012 15.03 GMT

Hundreds of men accused of sexual violence towards women have been allowed to stand in Indian elections in the last five years, including more than 30 charged with rape.

The figures were released in Delhi by the Association for Democratic Reforms, a respected thinktank, and were based on court records and electoral declarations filed by the candidates.

Although most of the men concerned were contesting state elections, the report found dozens of men facing criminal investigations for assault, "outraging the modesty of a woman" and other charges had been selected by major parties to campaign for seats in the national assembly.

The news comes as demonstrations across India continue following the gang rape of a 23-year-old student in Delhi on Sunday. Six men have been arrested for the attack. The victim, who sustained severe intestinal injuries, remains in a critical condition in hospital. It was reported that she had regained consciousness but was still extremely weak. Doctors have described her as "a fighter".

The attack has dominated the news agenda in India all week, unleashing a wave of anger and shock directed largely at police officials as well as senior politicians such as Delhi's chief minister, Sheila Dikshit. A crowd marched to the residence of the president, Pranab Mukherjee.

Among the Bollywood celebrities who have expressed dismay was A R Rahman, who composed the soundtrack to Oscar-winning hit Slumdog Millionaire. "If you don't fix it now, it is shame for the nation," he said.Officials attempted to reassure the public.

"The kind of policing we will have, we will ensure that everyone, man or woman, can move freely in any part of Delhi in both day and night," said RK Singh, the most senior civil servant in the Indian home ministry.

A particular grievance voiced by protesters and in the media has been that about a tenth of Delhi's 80,000 police officers are posted to protect the capital's top officials, politicians and diplomats. In India, the number of armed officers deployed is often taken as an indicator of an individual's power and influence.

"It is outrageous. They are guarding people who don't need to be guarded while the vulnerable are being left alone," said protester Ayesha Malik, 31, a housewife who joined the protest.

Professor Dipankar Gupta, a sociologist at Shiv Nadar University, Noida, said the response to the attack was partly due to the background of the victim as well as the brutality.

"There is a strong resonance. She doesn't come from a particularly wealthy family. Her parents had sold their land and paid for her education rather than a dowry. The attack happened in a normal part of Delhi, at 9pm and no one can possibly allege that she was behaving in a way that was 'not in keeping with Indian traditions' and all that junk," Gupta said.

Rape victims in India often face claims that they provoked their attackers.

Anil Bairwal, one of the authors of the thinktank report, said the true number of state and national parliamentarians and candidates facing charges of sexual violence could be far higher, as most attacks were registered without reference to gender.

"If the parliamentarians who are discussing these kind of problems have themselves given tickets to people like this then you can legitimately ask if they are serious about punishing this kind of crime," Bairwal said.

High proportions of Indian politicians have often serious criminal charges outstanding against them. Though some charges are undoubtedly unfounded, as judicial process is often used to smear political opponents, and the police force in many states is highly corrupt, Indian analysts frequently warn of increasing criminal involvement in politics.

Many of the politicians facing rape allegations came from poor northern states with poor records for law and order, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. In the most recent national elections, the report said, political parties put forward six candidates who declared they had been charged with rape – though none won seats.

Neeraj Kumar, chief commissioner of Delhi, explained the rise in the number of recorded rape complaints in the capital, which has a population of around 15 million, from 564 in 2011 to 661 this year, as due to "more and more women feeling empowered to come forward and lodge reports".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/21/india-men-sexual-violence-elections

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India gang rape: Delhi police announce new measures to protect women

Daily Telepgraph

By Our Foreign Staff

2:52PM GMT 21 Dec 2012

Indian officials have announced a broad campaign to protect women in Delhi following the gang rape and brutal beating of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in the capital.

The attack sparked days of protests across the country from women demanding that authorities take tougher action to protect them against the daily threat of harassment and violence. The government said it is taking steps to address those concerns.

"There will not be any tolerance for crimes against women," Home Secretary R.K. Singh said.

Bus drivers in New Delhi will be required to display their identification prominently in the vehicles, buses are now required to remove tinting from their windows and plainclothes police are being placed on buses to protect female passengers, he said. In addition, chartered buses such as the one where the attack occurred will be impounded if they illegally ply for fares on the streets, he said.

Authorities are also cracking down on drunk driving and on loitering gangs of drunken youths, he added.

The victim and a companion were attacked after getting a ride on a chartered bus after going to the cinema on Sunday evening. Police said the men on the bus gang-raped her and beat her and her companion with iron rods as the bus drove through the city for hours, even passing through police checkpoints. The assailants eventually stripped the pair and dumped them on the side of a road.

The woman remains in a serious condition in a Delhi hospital.

Protesters marched to the presidential residence yesterday and towards parliament, while theatre troupes performed plays about women's safety in a park in central Delhi. A group blocked traffic near the hospital where the victim, who had severe internal injuries, was being treated.

The case has brought the issue of rape in India to the fore. A think-tank report released on Thursday revealed that at least 20 men accused of raping women ran in Indian elections in the last five years

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) study said many Indian parties fielded candidates who were facing rape accusations.

"Since 2007, political parties gave tickets to 20 rape accused to fight in state elections. This is shocking and requires urgent action," Jagdeep Chhokar, the founder of ADR, said.

"The politicians who come out to condemn rape are the ones who are openly giving the rape accused a chance to fight elections. This is hypocrisy."

The report stated that political parties had also given tickets to 260 men who were charged with other crimes against women, including molestation.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/9761162/India-gang-rape-Delhi-police-announce-new-measures-to-protect-women.html

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Delhi erupts but rape cases continue to haunt India

Zeenews Bureau

Last Updated: Saturday, December 22, 2012, 15:49

New Delhi: Despite massive furore across the country over the recent Delhi gang-rape case, many more cases have been reported from different parts of the country. The 23-year old was brutally raped and tortured by a gang of six persons in a moving bus Sunday night.

Minor girl sexually abused in Jharkhand

A 55-year-old man was on Saturday accused of sexually abusing a six-year-old girl at Bhathkidih in Jamshedpur city.

In a FIR filed by Saeeda Parveen the mother of the victim, the man, Subhaan was accused of abusing the minor and issuing threats not to go to the police, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Law and Order) Raj Kishore Prasad told reporters.

Woman stripped naked, gangraped in Tripura

A housewife was stripped naked, gangraped and battered in full public glare in Tripura, police said on Saturday.

"A 37-year-old woman was gang-raped at Bishalgarh in western Tripura Wednesday night. After the rape, the women was stripped naked, brutally beaten up and then tied to a tree," a police official told reporters here.

Three-year-old girl raped in Delhi

A three-year-old girl was raped in a play-school in West Delhi, prompting the Delhi government to Friday ask the police to take stringent action against its principal.

The child was allegedly raped by the husband of the owner of the school on Monday in west Delhi's Sagarpur area, and the incident came to light two days later, police said.

Yet another gang-rape in Delhi

In yet another case of rape in the capital, a 40-year-old woman was allegedly gangraped in Welcome area of the capital by three persons, police said.

The incident took place at the rented accommodation of the mother of four.

One of the accused, Gaffar (46) has been arrested while two others were absconding, police said.

Police has identified one of the two absconding accused as Aalam, also 46.

Tribal girl raped in Andhra Pradesh

A 35-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a minor tribal girl here, police said on Friday.

"The 12-year-old victim, who hailed from a village under Chintapalle block, was waiting at the bus stop yesterday when the accused lured her under the pretext of dropping her home on his bike. He then took her to an isolated place near a degree college and sexually assaulted her," police inspector KN SV Prasad said tonight.

Two separate cases of gang-rape reported in Odisha

Two new cases of the crime have been reported in Odisha involving a 19-year-old girl from Bhubaneswar and a 24-year-old woman from Keonjhar district.

While five persons allegedly gang-raped a 19-year-old girl in Bhubaneswar by luring her to a secluded house, another woman was reportedly gang-raped by three youths in Keonjhar district.

A report from Jajpur district said a 24-year-old woman was also allegedly gang-raped and her gold ornaments looted by three youths after they forcibly took her to a forest in Keonjhar district on Tuesday.

The three were arrested yesterday from their villages in Keonjhar district.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/more-rape-incidents-shock-india_818233.html

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India: Woman Raped Every Twenty Minutes

Campaigners demand stiffer punishments and better policing following a huge increase in the number of women raped.

Sky News - 4:39am UK, Sunday 23 December 2012

By Alex Rossi, India Correspondent

Campaigners in India are calling for tougher penalties for sex offenders after a massive rise in the number of rapes.

According to the latest government figures, a woman is now raped in India every 20 minutes (given the huge amount of under reporting the actual figure may be many times higher). But despite the increase in sex attacks the number of convictions is falling.

In the last 12 months there have been a number of high-profile cases which have caused outrage across the nation.

One of the most shocking attacks happened in the state of Haryana. Unusually the victim waived her right to anonymity.

Sixteen-year-old Shabnam was gang raped by eight men from her village. Her attackers filmed the assault on their mobile phones.

When her father became aware the images were being shared around the village he committed suicide out of shame.

Haryana is a tight-knit - mainly agrarian community - where family honour and the avoidance of shame are a matter of life and death for many.

But the brave schoolgirl wants the world to know what happened because she says too many victims are either too afraid or too ashamed to speak out.

"I don't want the sacrifice of my father to be wasted," she said. "I've decided to get them all punished so that whatever happened with me should never happen to anybody else again."

The physical scars of Shabnam's attack have now healed but her mother Rani fears she will never fully recover psychologically from her ordeal.

"My daughter is scared and depressed. She barely speaks because there is so much fear in mind," she said.

The rise in sexual assaults in Haryana reflects what is happening in other states across India.

A preference for sons and the illegal practice of female infanticide and foeticide have left the state with a badly skewed sex ratio.

In Haryana there are just 830 girls per 1,000 boys.

Women's rights campaigner Rishi Kant says the problems are deep rooted within Indian society.

"Because of these problems we are facing with female infanticide and foetcide, due to (the fact there are) less girls, young boys are doing all these crimes which are very heinous crimes and they should be booked immediately with a fast track court so that a proper sentence can be given against them."

Campaigners say India's laws for the protection of women are robust but are demanding better policing and stiffer jail terms.

http://news.sky.com/story/1029215/india-woman-raped-every-twenty-minutes

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India: Tear Gas Fired At Gang Rape Protesters

Police fire tear gas and water cannon at demonstrators during the sixth day of protests over the brutal gang rape of a student.

Sky News - 11:54am UK, Saturday 22 December 2012

Indian police fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who were demanding justice and safety for women following the brutal gang rape of a student on a bus.

Thousands of demonstrators in New Delhi surged towards the presidents palace chanting "we want justice" and carrying banners reading "hang them now".

Clashes between the protesters and riot police erupted when a group tried to break through barricades and some started throwing stones.

The police responded by opening fire on the crowds with gas and water, and using batons to try to control the masses.

It is the sixth day of protests in the wake of the attack on the 23-year-old physiotherapy student and her 28-year-old male companion by six drunk men on a bus.

They took it in turns to rape her and attack her with an iron rod, causing serious intestinal injuries, before throwing her off the bus.

The men claimed it was her punishment for being out in the evening with a man.

The woman is still battling for her life in a New Delhi hospital but her story has sparked massive demonstrations in a country where rape is the fastest rising crime.

The number of rape cases in New Delhi alone has risen 17% from 2011 to 661 this year, according to government figures.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesman for the main national opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said New Delhi "is becoming the rape capital" of India.

He urged the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, "to please respond to the deep sense of pain, agony and concern of the young people".

Experts say a combination of abusive sexual behaviour and a scant fear of the law because of the woefully low conviction rate, encourage such attacks in the city, which has a population of 19 million.

The government has appealed for calm and has said it will press for life sentences for the woman's six attackers, pay her medical bills and improve policing.

Junior home minister R.P.N. Singh told India's CNN-IBN television network: "The government is trying to do whatever it can to take measures and make sure that women are safe in the country."

Doctors at the hospital where the woman is being treated said in a statement she is in a critical but stable condition and had been removed from a ventilator.

Five suspects were arrested soon after the attack, which happened on Sunday, and a sixth was taken into custody on Friday.

http://news.sky.com/story/1029032/india-tear-gas-fired-at-gang-rape-protesters

Demonstrators shout slogans during a protest calling for better safety for women following the rape of a student last week, in front of the Government Secretariat and Presidential Palace in New Delhi

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Rage at brutal rape erupts in India

Andrew Buncombe

The Independent

Sunday, 23 December 2012

Police in Delhi yesterday used water cannon, tear gas and baton charges to disperse crowds of demonstrators protesting over the gang-rape of a student which has outraged the country.

The protesters, many of them students chanting "we want justice", had gathered close to government ministries in the capital and had tried to push their way past barricades towards the official residence of the President. Police said they were trying to avoid hurting anyone but that they were obliged to protect the high-security zone.

Several thousand protesters had gathered following a week of mounting anger after a 23-year-old female paramedical student and a male colleague were severely beaten and the young woman raped by a gang of men driving around the city in a bus. Though rape and sexual assaults occur frequently in Delhi and other parts of northern India, the savage nature of the attack, which has left the woman in hospital in a critical condition, has triggered widespread outrage.

Among those taking part in yesterday's protests were a mother and daughter, Kalpana Permar, 19, and Monica Singh, 48, from the state of Uttar Pradesh. Mrs Singh said the last time she had joined a demonstration was in the aftermath of the 1978 murder of sister and brother Geeta and Sanjay Chopra, before which Geeta was raped.

"At that time I was a teenager but now I have come to support my daughter at this protest," said Mrs Singh. Her daughter, a philosophy student at Delhi University, said she had joined the demonstrations because of the nature of the attack. "This is not just a rape. It is a crime that has happened in our country. It is very shameful," she said.

Another protester, Shilip Yadav, said few women felt safe in Delhi. "Not at all. Not even 1 per cent. Not in the morning, not in the evening. Even though this is the national capital," said the 21-year-old student.

Protesters who had gathered at the bottom of Raisina Hill, where many government ministries are located, said they wanted the protest to be peaceful. But as the day drew on there were clashes with police, and several people were reportedly injured. Some protesters threw stones, rubber flip-flops and plastic bottles.

But the anger seemed targeted more at the government than the police. Demonstrators have been demanding fast-track courts, tougher laws and leadership from politicians. "We want a safe city," said another student, Shuchi Gupta.

The government has been accused of being slow to respond to the protests, which grew in the aftermath of last Sunday's attack, which ended with the woman and her friend dumped naked by the roadside.

The government said on Friday that it was seeking life imprisonment for the assailants. Many protesters, however, have been demanding the death penalty for the five suspects arrested and the sixth alleged attacker who remains at large.

The main opposition has demanded a change to the law, prescribing the death penalty for rape. Last night, the office of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said new measures had been agreed to protect women in the capital.

Many protesters were angry that no one from the government came to meet with them. According to the Associated Press, C P N Singh, a junior minister in the home ministry, told reporters that the government had urged protesters not to damage property. "The government is hearing you and taking steps necessary to ensure the safety of women," Mr Singh said.

Doctors treating the victim, from the state of Uttar Pradesh, said they had never seen injuries so severe from such an attack. She has had to have part of her intestine removed because doctors were fearful of the threat of gangrene.

The victim and her companion were attacked after getting on a private bus, thinking it was a normal vehicle, after a visit to the cinema. Police have said the men on the bus, many of whom come from a slum in the south of the city, gang-raped the woman and beat her and her companion with iron rods as the bus drove through the city for hours. Adding to the public horror, it was later revealed the bus had driven through several police check-points.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/rage-at-brutal-rape-erupts-in-india-8430114.html#

Water cannon and tear gas used against protesters shocked by horrific attack