The month of August is turning out to be horrific, especially in terms of crimes against women in India. While PM Modi mentioned the importance of women's safety during his Independence Day Speech in 2024, back-to-back cases of rape are coming to the fore and it is indeed worrisome. While the Prime Minister is on his visit to Poland & Ukraine and representing India as a possible peacemaker between Ukraine & Russia, protests have hit multiple cities of India after multiple cases of rape, gang rape & murder in different states have come to the fore. After Kolkata and Badlapur (Maharashtra), women in Assam took to the streets to protest against crimes against women. The protest in Assam was sparked after the gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl in the state.
What happened in Assam?
As per reports, a 14-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by three persons in Assam's Nagaon district, triggering massive protests by people on the streets. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma promised that stern action would be taken against the perpetrators. As per a newswire, the girl was allegedly assaulted and raped by three persons while she was returning home from her tuition on her bicycle in Dhing area around 8 pm on Thursday.
The minor was found in an unconscious state by the roadside and rescued by locals, who then informed the police. She has been admitted to Dhing medical unit in Nagoan district of the state for treatment. The police has arrested one of the accused in the case, identified as Tafazzul Islam.
Badlapur Sexual assault case
A cleaning staff member allegedly sexually assaulted two four-year-old girls on August 13. As per initial FIR reports, the assaults took place in the school toilet on August 13 and the parents informed the police on August 16. They alleged the FIR was filed 11 hours after their complaint. The accused, Akshay Shinde, 23, was arrested on August 17. On Tuesday, a massive protest was held at Badlapur Railway Station against the alleged sexual assault incident of two minor girls at a school in Thane District. Hundreds of angry parents and locals came onto the tracks at the Badlapur railway station around 8 am on Tuesday and blocked the path of trains. Maharashtra CM Shinde constituted an SIT to probe the case.
Thereafter, the SIT named the governing body of the school in Badlapur in the case filed under the POCSO Act for failing to report the incidents to police. Apart from the management members, the class teacher and two women attendants, too, have been named.
Kolkata Rape & Murder Case
A 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor in Kolkata's RG Kar hospital had gone to rest in the hospital's seminar hall during her 36-hour-long shift when she was attacked. The post-mortem report suggests that the Kolkata doctor was raped and severely beaten. She had 16 external and nine internal injuries and died due to strangulation. A man named Sanjay Roy was arrested by the Kolkata Police in the case, however, due to nationwide outrage and fear of a botched-up investigation the case was transferred to the CBI.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday revealed psychoanalytic profiling of Sanjay Roy, prime accused of the Kolkata rape & murder case. Before this, the CBI submitted a status report in sealed cover to the Supreme Court of India during the hearing. Sanjay Roy's psychoanalytic profiling revealed that he did not show any remorse over the incident and also narrated how he gruesomely committed the entire crime.
Notably, more cases have come to the fore in the past few days like a woman died by suicide in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar after she was allegedly gang-raped. The case sparked outrage after the woman's father claimed that the police initially refused to include sections of gang rape in the FIR.
Another case is a man was arrested on Friday for allegedly raping his 10-year-old relative on multiple occasions for a year in Maharashtra's Akola district. The internet and news channels are filled with such reports, and now it is indeed high time that not only a stricter law comes into place but also a fast-track court should be established for dealing such types of cases.