Group rape in Delhi 2012

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On December 16, 2012, a group rape occurred in the Indian city ​​of Delhi . Jyoti Singh Pandey, 23, was raped and tortured by six men and suffered severe internal injuries from the mistreatment, from which she succumbed on December 29, 2012. The gang rape in Delhi in 2012 triggered several days of protests in many cities in India and a worldwide media coverage. Protesters called for better security measures for women, stricter prosecution of rapists and a change in mentality among the many Indian men who sexually molest women verbally or physically , which in India in certain male circles is euphemistically called Eve teasing ("irritating Eva").

Protests on December 21, 2012 at India Gate in New Delhi

Four of the six perpetrators involved in the gang rape received death sentences. The executions carried out on them were confirmed by a prison in New Delhi on March 20, 2020 . The main defendant was found dead in his prison cell in March 2013. Another perpetrator was a minor at the time of the offense and was sentenced to a three-year juvenile sentence, which he had served in full in 2015.

Course of events

Protests on December 22, 2012 in New Delhi on Raisina Hill
A protest march in Calcutta on December 29, 2012
Protests in Bangalore on December 30, 2012

A group of six men got together on December 16, 2012 and ate and drank together. Then they decided to have a little more fun. Ram S., who worked as a driver of a school bus for a private school, drove a bus with dark-tinted windows, which was not approved for the transport of general passengers, through Delhi. The group took a carpenter (illegally) with them, from whom they collected 10  rupees (Rs) (about 14 euro cents) for the ride. They then robbed him for Rs 8,000 and suspended him. Then they went back to Delhi and took the 23-year-old physiotherapy trainee in with her 28-year-old companion. The two were on their way home from a movie. The men also took Rs 10 each from them for the bus trip. In the course of an argument that the perpetrators provoked, they knocked the young woman's companion unconscious with an iron bar. Then there was a group rape that lasted almost an hour , involving six perpetrators.

In the course of the abuse, the young woman was tortured with an iron bar. She suffered serious injuries. According to the doctors, the extent of her genital injuries indicated that she was forcibly penetrated with a blunt object, presumably the iron bar . According to reports in the Hindustan Times, the youngest perpetrator "literally tore out" the victim's bowel.

After this act, they threw the victim and the companion from the moving bus. The perpetrators then tried to run over them, but they did not succeed.

In his first public statement on January 4, 2013, the person accompanying the injured raised serious allegations against the police and passers-by. Although both were without clothes and his companion was lying bleeding on the street, despite his waving, none of the driving by car and rickshaw drivers stopped for 20 minutes. The summoned police only arrived after 45 minutes and initially dealt with arguments about which district was responsible. The injured woman was transported to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, although other hospitals were closer, probably because it is state-run. In the hospital on December 19, a major part of the injured bowel had to be surgically removed.

The Indian government appointed a committee of specialists on December 23, 2012 to ensure the best medical care. At a meeting of the Manmohan Singh II cabinet on December 26, 2012, it was decided to fly the now intubated and ventilated victim to Mount Elizabeth Hospital , a special hospital for organ transplants in Singapore . This decision to send the patient, who is ventilated and in a medically unstable condition, on a long-haul flight lasting several hours was later criticized by some commentators as not being medically but purely politically motivated. An organ transplant was only possible in weeks or months at the earliest and there was therefore no need for an immediate transfer. On December 29, 2012, the woman succumbed to her injuries at the Singapore hospital without regaining consciousness.

All suspected perpetrators, including the bus driver, were arrested by Indian police by December 21, 2012. According to prosecutors, the victim's DNA matched blood stains on the suspects' clothing.

Reactions

Sonia Gandhi , President of the Indian Congress Party , arrived at Delhier Safdarjung Hospital on December 18, 2012 and asked the doctors about the health of the two victims. In his first official statement on December 24, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that as the father of three daughters, he was just as shaken as anyone. He called for prudence because "violence is not a solution". The Prime Minister has been criticized for his "emotionless" speech on India's social media. Many planned New Year's Eve parties for the turn of the year 2012/2013 were canceled in New Delhi; shortly before, the victim's ashes had been scattered in the Ganges .

Indictment, trial, convictions and execution

On January 3, 2013, five men were charged with murder , gang rape, attempted murder, unnatural violations, robbery, destruction of evidence, conspiracy and kidnapping.

In the case of one of the six suspects, it first had to be determined whether he was a minor (under 18) or under adult criminal law at the time of the crime. No murder charges can be brought against minors in India.

On January 21, 2013, five of the alleged perpetrators appeared in an express court in New Delhi for an initial hearing. The judge Yogesh Khanna had previously excluded the public from the session. Lawyers for the alleged perpetrators reported on their plans to have a second client recognized as a juvenile and, after a request to the constitutional court, to transfer the process to a court outside New Delhi for a more neutral trial. The request to reschedule the trial was denied.

On February 2, the five defendants pleaded not guilty. The trial began on February 5, 2013. At the start of the trial, the man who accompanied the victim on the night of the crime testified.

On March 10, 2013, the main defendant was found hanged in a solitary cell at Tihar Detention Center . According to a prison spokesman, an autopsy should clarify whether there was any outside interference. The prison authorities assumed a suicide , while the prime suspect's lawyer and family doubted it and suspected murder. The family of the raped woman accused the prison authorities of failure.

On August 31, 2013, the perpetrator, who was 17 at the time of the crime, was sentenced to a maximum sentence of three years under youth arrest. On September 9, the remaining four perpetrators were found guilty. On September 13, the Indian court in charge of the case issued its verdicts. All four perpetrators were sentenced to death. In the grounds of the verdict, the presiding judge Yogesh Khanna said: This case definitely falls in the rarest of rare categories and warrants the exemplary punishment of death ("This crime clearly falls into the rarest of the rare categories and requires exemplary punishment with the death penalty"). After the verdict was announced, tumult broke out in the courtroom. The victim's family and numerous people in front of the courthouse welcomed the verdict. On May 5, 2017, the Indian Supreme Court also upheld the lower court judgments.

The youngest offender was released in December 2015 after three years of placement in a reformatory. This led to spontaneous protests by several hundred people in the center of New Delhi. A petition by the women's rights group “Delhi Women's Commission” against the release of the 20-year-old man was rejected by the Indian Supreme Court.

In November 2019, the last petition for a review was rejected by the Supreme Court , so that now only appeals for clemency to the Indian President were possible. Since one of the four convicts submitted such a request, the execution of the other three was initially postponed so that a uniform decision on the case could be made. On January 17, 2020, President Ram Nath Kovind's petition for clemency was denied. The execution of all four convicts was finally carried out by hanging on March 20, 2020 at 5:30 a.m. Indian time in Tihar Prison .

Attribution of the victim

Indian law forbids naming victims of rape unless they or their dependents have given their consent. Therefore, various paraphrases were in circulation in the Indian press when the victim was mentioned. She was called Braveheart ("brave heart"), India's Daughter ("India's daughter") or Damini (after a well-known Hindi film in which a maid is raped by the son of the house and later dies). On January 6, 2013, the victim's father declared that the general public should know his daughter's name, Jyoti Singh Pandey, so that other women who had experienced sexual harassment or rape would be encouraged. The victim's father subsequently called for the verdict to be delivered quickly and for the alleged perpetrators to be sentenced to death.

aftermath

Legislative implications

Sexual criminal law has been tightened in India . President Pranab Mukherjee signed the law on February 3, 2013, two days after the Indian cabinet approved an amendment to the law on sex offenses . It thus came into force. Accordingly , the death penalty can be imposed for rape whose victim falls permanently into a coma or dies . The judges are granted a margin of discretion in reaching a judgment; the minimum sentence is 20 years imprisonment.

There is a new law against stalking , which, according to media reports, is only handled laxly. In addition, new emergency numbers were set up and police units formed.

Others

The number of rape reports has increased rapidly since December 2012; in 2013 it was around twice as high as in 2012.

On October 26, 2013, a 16-year-old Indian woman was sexually abused by a group of men in Madhyamgram near Calcutta . After reporting this to the police the next day, she was raped again. According to the police, it was then set on fire on December 23; she died in the hospital on the evening of January 1, 2014.

By decision of the village council ( Panchayat ) a young woman was extradited to gang rape in India. The rape by about a dozen men was imposed as a punishment by the village council of Subalpur, West Bengal, because the 20-year-old had an affair with a young man from a neighboring village and could not pay the fine imposed by the village council. Politicians from all camps condemned the act. A total of 13 suspects identified by the woman were arrested.

Protests against sexual violence also sparked the rape of children in New Delhi in October 2015, including a two-year-old.

documentary

Web links

Commons : Demonstrations in response to the gang rape in Delhi 2012  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hilmar König: Victims no longer nameless. India: father and boyfriend of the raped student break their silence. In: Junge Welt . Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  2. ↑ The name of the raped Indian woman was Jyoti Singh Pandey. Father reveals the student's name. In: Focus . Retrieved January 6, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Thousands of Indians demonstrate against rape on Spiegel Online on December 22, 2012
  4. ^ Nidhi Dutt: Eve teasing in India: Assault or harassment by another name. BBC News, January 13, 2012, accessed January 4, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Delhi gangrape victim regains consciousness, next 48 hours critical. webcitation.org, archived from the original on December 30, 2012 ; accessed on January 3, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Group rape in India: the youngest perpetrator was the most brutal of all , focus.de, January 4, 2013
  7. ↑ Delhi gangrape: Accused had tried to mow down braveheart under bus, friend saved her. webcitation.org, archived from the original on January 1, 2013 ; accessed on January 3, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Friend of the Indian student raises serious allegations: The police are said to have not helped the raped woman for a long time. tagesschau.de, January 5, 2013, archived from the original on January 8, 2013 ; Retrieved January 5, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Delhi gang-rape victim wanted accused to be burnt alive: Braveheart's friend. ZeeNews.com, January 4, 2013, accessed January 5, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Delhi gang-rape: victim battles on, undergoes fifth surgery; doctors remove her intestine. In: Hindustan Times. December 19, 2012, accessed January 3, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Delhi gangrape: Committee FORMED to monitor girl's treatment. In: Hindustan Times. December 20, 2012, accessed January 3, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Delhi gang-rape victim shifted from hospital to be flown abroad for treatment. In: The Times of India. December 26, 2012, accessed January 3, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Bindu Shajan Perappadan: Rape survivor airlift was govt., Not medical, decision. In: The Hindu. December 28, 2012, accessed January 4, 2013 .
  14. ^ Names and backgrounds of the arrested men , Focus.de, January 3, 2013
  15. ↑ DNA traces prove guilty of suspects , spiegel.de, January 5, 2013
  16. ↑ Delhi gangrape shakes Parliament; Jaya Bachchan breaks down, Sushma Swaraj, others seek death penalty . In: The Indian Express , December 19, 2012. 
  17. ↑ Delhi gang-rape: Indian PM Manmohan Singh's 'Theek Hai' gaffe sets Twitter on fire. December 24, 2012, accessed on January 4, 2013 (English, "I also feel deeply sad at the turn of events leading to clashes between protesters and police forces. Anger at this crime is justified but violence will serve no purpose. I appeal to all concerned citizens to maintain peace and calm. I assure you that we will make all possible efforts to ensure security and safety of women in this country. ").
  18. ↑ Ashes scattered in the Ganges
  19. ↑ unnatural offenses
  20. ^ For a list of all 13 counts, see Delhi gang-rape case: All four convicts awarded death sentence. In: The Times of India . September 13, 2013, accessed September 28, 2013 .
  21. ↑ spiegel.de January 3, 2013: Five men in New Delhi charged with murder
  22. ↑ a b Rape in India: First trial court at diepresse.com, January 21, 2013 (accessed January 21, 2013).
  23. ↑ Rape Trial in India: Court Denies Request for Relocation at Spiegel Online , January 29, 2013 (accessed February 5, 2013).
  24. ^ Zeit online, February 2, 2013: Alleged Indian rapists plead not guilty
  25. ↑ spiegel.de: Murder trial in New Delhi: eyewitness testifies about rape of young Indian women
  26. ^ Zeit Online, March 11, 2013: India: Main defendant in the rape trial commits suicide.
  27. ↑ Indians found guilty of rape , Sueddeutsche.de of August 31, 2013, accessed on September 1, 2013.
  28. ^ Times of India
  29. ↑ Sueddeutsche.de
  30. ↑ Death sentences in India: Hardest sentence for four rapists. Tagesschau.de, September 13, 2013, archived from the original on September 15, 2013 ; Retrieved September 13, 2013 .
  31. ↑ Delhi gang rape: Four sentenced to death. BBC News, September 13, 2013, accessed September 13, 2013 .
  32. Jump up ↑ Death penalty for four rapists in India. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . May 5, 2017. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  33. ↑ Protests against the release of rapists . In: spiegel.de, December 20, 2015 (accessed March 20, 2020).
  34. ↑ Petition against the release of rapist fails in court . In: spiegel.de, December 21, 2015 (accessed March 20, 2020).
  35. ^ President rejects mercy plea of ​​Nirbhaya case convict Mukesh Singh
  36. ↑ Four men executed for raping a student . In: spiegel.de, March 20, 2020 (accessed March 20, 2020).
  37. ↑ Delhi gang-rape: Braveheart cremated privately amid tight security. dnaindia.com, December 30, 2012, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  38. ↑ Delhi Gangrape: RIP India's Daughter, fighter till the end, this hospital in Singapore. citymirchi.com, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on January 6, 2013 .
  39. ↑ Delhi gang-rape victim given symbolic name 'Damini'. dnaindia.com, December 23, 2012, accessed January 6, 2013 .
  40. ↑ Death for all six of them, these men are beasts, says Damini's father, 'I want the world to know her name'. January 6, 2013, accessed on January 6, 2013 (English): “I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter. "
  41. ↑ 'Her name was Jyoti. I am proud of her ': Father's anguish as he finally reveals identity of the Indian gang rape victim whose death horrified the world. In: Daily Mail. January 7, 2013, accessed January 7, 2013 .
  42. ↑ spiegel.de: New law in India: rapists face the death penalty
  43. ↑ a b spiegel.de December 13, 2013: One year later the government is celebrating progress, but young Indian women tell a different story (a report from New Delhi)
  44. ↑ Sexual violence: Young woman in India dies after gang rape. In: The time . January 2, 2014, accessed March 28, 2014 .
  45. ↑ Punishment for Indian woman - Indian village council orders group rape. In: Focus . January 23, 2014, accessed October 26, 2014 .
  46. ↑ Rape of young children: Indians protest against sexual violence. In: Spiegel online. October 18, 2015, accessed October 21, 2015 .