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India: Men Allegedly Rape Same Woman Again After She Refuses An Out-Of-Court Settlement

By Rahul Srinivas
Published on: 10:09 PST, Jul 18, 2016

A 21-year-old woman from the northern Indian state of Haryana was allegedly gang raped by the same five men who were accused of committing the same crime, three years ago. The shocking incident happened in the city of Rohtak last week. Local police officials have yet to make an arrest. According to BBC News, the woman was 18 when she was raped by the same five men back in 2013.

Initial reports say that the woman was first abducted in a car, attacked, and then, once again, gang raped by the men last Wednesday. She was reportedly thrown out of the car and left to die by her attackers. The woman was later found by a passerby who helped her get to a hospital. Doctors were luckily able to save her life. In a statement given to a local TV channel, the woman revealed that she was coming back from college when she was abducted by the men. She described the incident as follows:

“I was leaving the college when I saw them. They were the same five men. I was very afraid. They forced me inside the car. They tried to strangulate me. They said they would kill my father and brother. I have no idea where they took me. My attackers were the same five men.”

Following the 2013 incident, which reportedly happened in a different city, a town called Bhiwani, the woman filed a case against the five men. She and her family, for the past three years, have been fighting a legal battle to ensure that the five men do not go scot-free. The woman reportedly belongs to a lower caste Dalit family, famously known as the untouchables. Months after she filed a case against the five men, she and her family started to be constantly stalked and threatened by the five men to agree for an out-of-court settlement. The woman and her family, on multiple occasions, expressed their decision not to agree for a settlement (which usually involves the rapist paying a large sum of money to the victim) and go ahead with a conviction. The five men and their families were reportedly miffed over the fact that the woman was not ready for any kind of settlement and decided to “teach her a lesson.” Tired of being threatened again and again, the woman and her family moved from Bhiwani to Rohtak.

After the incident came to light, several people from the region took to the streets to protest. Locals are questioning police officials who have not been able to arrest any of the five men accused of the crime even almost a week since the incident allegedly happened. Others are asking how and why the victim and her family were not given proper security in spite of repeated threats from the alleged rapists. Police officials were also questioned over how these five men accused of a serious crime were roaming scot-free and allegedly threatening the victim and her family. Meanwhile, local police officials claim that a team has been assigned to arrest the four men accused of raping the woman. A separate complaint has been registered as well, a local police official named Garima told reporters.

While India has been growing steadily over the past few decades, the number of rape cases and instances of crime against women continue to make headlines with frightening regularity. The Inquisitr had recently reported about the tragic case of Swathi S 24-year-old IT professional working for Indian software giant Infosys who was killed by a stalker in broad daylight. That incident happened in the southern Indian city of Chennai last month.

[Photo by Tsering Topgyal/AP Images

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