Eight cases that show the Nirbhaya verdict has not changed India

The Supreme Court of India, on May 5, confirmed the death sentence for all the four accused in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case, which shocked the whole country. The decision was meant to be a deterrent to possible offenders.

However, days after the verdict, another brutal gang-rape happened in Haryana’s Rohtak. In that case, a 20-year-old woman was horrifically attacked by a man and his friend. The men smashed her face and killed her.

A later autopsy conducted on her body revealed a missing food pipe, and that several sharp objects had been inserted into her private parts. Her body was recovered in a mutilated state after dogs had bitten off the lower region of her body. 

If the Nirbhaya case was supposed to be an eye-opener, then the Rohtak case should have generated an equal amount of outrage. Yet reactions were muted, perhaps because the incident happened near Rohtak, and not the capital. 

This is not a one-off incident either. There were a slew of cases, all in the month of May when the verdict came, that seem to indicate that India has changed little after Nirbhaya's murder and even less after the death sentence was awarded to her killers. 

Here are some of the brutal rape cases that occurred within days of the Nirbhaya verdict, showing that rapists have very low regard for death sentence deterrents.

May 15, 2017

 

A 22-year-old Sikkim woman was returning home in Gurugram, Haryana. Three men dragged her into their car, gang-raped her while driving to Najafgarh and later throw her out of their car, about 20 km from where they picked her. 

 

May 14, 2017

Another gang-rape incident happened in Haryana’s Rohtak, a 20-year-old woman jilted by her lover and friend. Later those men smashed her face and killed her, autopsy conducted on her body showed missing food pipe, and several sharp objects had been inserted into her private parts. Her body was recovered in a mutilated state after dogs had bitten off their lower region of her body.

 

May 13, 2017

 

Another incident occurred in Haryana, where a  10-year-old girl was found pregnant, after being repeatedly raped by her step-father. The pregnancy was affirmed by the doctors; who also added that the man had threatened the girl against revealing her condition to anybody. The girl is in critical condition.

 

May 11, 2017

 

A 45-year-old school owner was arrested for sexually exploiting his daughter, over the past seven years in Ghaziabad. He had also filmed the acts so he could force his daughter and would beat her if she resisted him. Her mother is also known to have been complicit with her husband in the crime.

 

May 10, 2017

 

This case will surely give you goosebumps. A 21-month-old baby was raped by a 40-year-old from her neighbour in Delhi’s Gandhi Nagar area. The man was known to the girl’s father, as he was allowed to play with the baby often.

However, on the day of the crime, finding the infant alone, he raped the girl for hours until her father came home. Immediately she was taken to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared her to be in critical condition. 

May 10, 2017

 

A 5-year-old specially abled girl was raped by a 24-year-old man in Varanasi. First, he tried to kidnap his neighbour (another minor), sleeping with her mother. Unable to sneak her out, he started hunting for another victim. On finding this differently abled girl asleep with her family in a hut, he took her to a field and raped her all night. The girl was found in a pool of blood. She has now been admitted to a hospital.

May 8, 2017

 

Another incident happened in Ludhiana when a 16-year-old girl was drugged by her mother so that her two friends could take turns raping her. The duo raped the girl for over five months. They even forced her to abort a 3-month-old foetus a few weeks ago. The victim said that her mother did this as revenge against her husband, the father, who opposed the mother's extramarital affair. 

May 6, 2017

 

Once again in Delhi, a minor was allegedly raped by her neighbour at Anand Parbat area. The 3-year-old girl was raped by a 22-year-old man. The girl's parents caught him during the vulgar act. The victim was bleeding profusely from her private parts. Later she was admitted to Lady Harding Hospital for surgery.