Demonstrators hold placards demanding better safety for women in New Delhi. (File photo)
Activists have staged a protest in India’s eastern city of Kolkata over the gang-rape and burning of an Indian teenager which led to her death.
The 16-year-old was assaulted in two separate attacks first on October 26 and then again the day after by a group of over six men near her family’s home in Madhyagram town, located about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Kolkata.
The second rape took place as she was coming back home after reporting the first assault at a police station.
According to police, the victim, whose name cannot be released due to legal reasons, was then burned on December 23 and lost her life in a state-run hospital late on New Year’s Eve.
“She gave us a dying declaration in front of the health officials that she was set on fire by two persons close to the accused when she was alone at home on December 23,” said local policeman Nimbala Santosh Uttamrao.
Meanwhile, the victim’s father who is a migrant from India’s poorest state Bihar, said, “The accused tried to kill my daughter by setting her on fire to hush up their crimes.”
The heinous crime, which was appalling in its brutality, sparked outrage in India as on Wednesday, hundreds of activists held a demonstration in Kolkata over the felony.
This is not the first incident of such crime in India. In December 2012, a young medical student was gang-raped and savagely beaten on a moving bus and thrown out to a street in New Delhi.
The horrific nature of the crime shocked Indians and mass protests broke out across the country over the government’s failure to protect women against violence.
The Indian parliament has adopted tougher laws to punish rapists.
However, activists say rape victims in the country often receive harsh threats and intimidation from assailants after the attack, and police often discourage the victims from filing complaints.
MR/HSN
SOURCE : PRESS TV
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