Ten rapes cases that India will never forget

Here are the ten rape cases that shook India. 

 

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Aruna Shanbaug Case: One of the oldest rape cases widely covered by the media was the 1973 case of nurse Aruna Shanbaug.  Aruna was raped by a sweeper, Sohanlal Bhartha Walmiki, while working as a junior nurse at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. During the rape, Sohanlal choked Shanbaug with a dog chain - causing permanent brain damage. Shanbaug died from pneumonia on 18 May 2015 after being in a persistent vegetative state for nearly 42 years. Sohanlal served his sentence and was a free man for most of those years. This case remains an iconic symbol of the injustice women face in India. 

 

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Mathura rape case: On 26 March 1972, a 15-year-old tribal girl named Mathura was raped by two policemen in Chandrapur district, Maharashtra. Initially, the culprits were acquitted by the sessions court as the girl was said to have been “habituated to sexual intercourse”. Later massive protests led to the formation of a women’s rights group and a subsequent change in the Indian rape law.

 

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Scarlett Keeling Rape and Murder:  Scarlett was a British tourist visiting India with her family. She was raped and then drowned in the sea and murdered. The Scarlett Keeling case of 2009 is of importance because it was in the media for all the wrong reasons. 

 

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Park Street Rape Case: 

Suzette Jordan was gangraped at gunpoint inside a moving car and then thrown out of the vehicle on Park Street on the night of 5 February 2012. On 10 December 2015, nine months after Jordan's death, the three accused on trial in the case were pronounced guilty. 

 

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Priyadarshini Mattoo Rape and Murder Case: 

Priyadarshini Mattoo, a 25-year-old law student, was rape and murdered in 1996. She was raped and murdered by Santosh Kumar Singh at her house in New Delhi. The trial court had cleared Santosh, but due to media pressure the Delhi High Court made a landmark decision and sentenced him to death.

 

Nirbhaya case: 

 

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The most notorious of all rape cases has to be the Delhi gang rape of 2012. The girl named Jyoti Singh was raped by six men while she was travelling in a bus with her friend in New Delhi. The girl was brutally violated by an iron rod and later died due to her horrific injuries. All the six culprits were arrested. One of them, Ram Singh, committed suicide in jail. Four of them were sentenced to death, and the juvenile was sent to a remand home and released in two years.

Mumbai gang rape: 

A 22-year-old photojournalist who was interning with a magazine in Mumbai, was gang-raped by five men, including a juvenile, when she had gone to the deserted in Shakti Mills, Mumbai. On 4 April 2014, the court gave the death penalty to the three repeat offenders in the photojournalist rape case. The other two convicts were given life imprisonment.

 
Imrana Rape Case: 

The Imrana rape case of 2005 brings to light another problem in India about separate laws for different religions. Her father-in-law raped her in UP, and the village panchayat treated it as a case of adultery instead of rape. That also ordered Imrana to leave her husband and consider herself married to her father-in-law. After a lot of media attention, she got justice as her father-in-law was sentenced to a term of ten years of imprisonment.

Jisha rape and murder case: 

 

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Jisha was raped and found murdered on April 28, 2016 at her home in Ernakulam, Kerala. Justice for Jisha was the hashtag (#JusticeForJisha) used in the social media during that time to strengthen efforts for justice to Jisha by politicians and a large extent by people. 

Bhanwari Devi Gang Rape Case: 

 

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In 1992 Bhanwari Devi was gang-raped by five high caste men of Bhateri village when she got involved in speaking against child marriage. She was being denied justice by her low caste and gender. Hence she attracted a lot of media coverage, and the case is now considered crucial in the women’s rights movement in India.

Soumya Murder Case: 

Govindachami attacked Soumya in an attempt to rob her during her train journey from Ernakulam to Shornur in Kerala. He also smashed her head into the wall and then threw her out of the train. later he also jumped out of the train, find her, carried her to the woods and then brutally raped her. She was severely injured when she was thrown out of the train and later succumbed to her injuries. Govindachami was awarded capital punishment.