Incompetent Punjab Police Pressure East Punjabi Rape Victim To Commit Suicide

[HSD2]

AMRITSAR, India (AFP) - A 17-year-old Indian girl who was gang-raped committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers, police and a relative said on Thursday.

Amid the ongoing uproar over the gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi earlier this month, the latest case has again shone the spotlight on the police's handling of sex crimes.

One police officer has been sacked and another suspended over their conduct after the assault during the festival of Diwali on November 13 in the Patiala region in the Punjab, according to officials.

The teenager was found dead on Wednesday night after swallowing poison.

Inspector General Paramjit Singh Gill said that the teenager had been "running from pillar to post to get her case registered" but officers failed to open a formal inquiry.

"One of the officers tried to convince her to withdraw the case," Gill, the police chief for the area, told AFP.

Before her death, there had been no arrests over her case although three people were detained on Thursday. Two of them were her alleged male attackers and the third was a suspected woman accomplice.

The victim's sister told Indian television that the teenager had been urged to either accept a cash settlement or marry one of her attackers.

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has now been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

During an address to the chief ministers of India's states on Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

[DilchaspSingh]

Now where are those ba$tards over here who think a girl getting raped is justified because people of India "deserve" it?

[Jonny101]

Now where are those ba$tards over here who think a girl getting raped is justified because people of India "deserve" it?

Dude what're talking about? Who here said anything about wanting girls getting raped? No one said that.

[DilchaspSingh]

Dude what're talking about? Who here said anything about wanting girls getting raped? No one said that.

Sir, I don't want to name anyone as they are the "highly demanded" scholars on this board who feel that the people of India, specifically the middle class of Delhi deserved it.

[N30S1NGH]

Must be another khalistani right wing nut bar.

Btw just for record I believe in Sikh sovereignty Khalistan but I be the first one to flee and seek refuge outside if right wing nut bar goons who justify rape are in control.

[Jonny101]

Sir, I don't want to name anyone as they are the "highly demanded" scholars on this board who feel that the people of India, specifically the middle class of Delhi deserved it.

Well I don't know who would say such a thing but as Sikhs we need to believe in all women as our sisters and daughters even if they are our worst enemy's women.

now to the topic, this poor girl died needlessly. She was still so young and had her entire life infront of her. Yet she died because no one was willing to help. I'm no fan of the Indian media because of their anti Sikh bias, but I think in the recent cases of sexual harassmen and rape cases, the Indian media has played a very positive role.

[proactive]

Now where are those ba$tards over here who think a girl getting raped is justified because people of India "deserve" it?

Get your facts straight! I wrote that those protesters never protested when Sikh women were raped and Sikhs murdered in Delhi in 1984. They never protest when rapes ten times worst are committed in the slum areas of India. They are only protesting because one of their middle class girls have been raped and now they demand 'justice' and feel that the streets of Delhi are unsafe for them! They didn't feel the streets were unsafe when Sikhs had burning tyres placed around their necks.

[Shaheed Singh Khalsa]

Now where are those ba$tards over here who think a girl getting raped is justified because people of India "deserve" it?

My brother please go easy with the swearing! If you are indeed a "Singh" then I think you should know better and have more respect for your fellow brothers and sisters (especially the younger readers) on this forum. If you disagree with something written or feel that passionately about something posted then why not show the original poster the error of their ways by holding what they have said against the infallible litmus test that is Gurbani.

[DilchaspSingh]

Get your facts straight!

Did I mention your name? I don't need any facts when I read someone saying that the people of Delhi "deserved" such a ghastly incident to hit them. No one is denying that Dalit and Sikh bibis have faced such horrors as well, however, the brutal gang-rape of this innocent girl is NO payback for them. Sikhs regard the mother/sisters/daughters of even their enemies as their own, so how could a Sikh, even in his/her dreams, say that some girl, just because she was non-Sikh, "deserved" to be raped just to make people feel the same way we felt when our womenfolk were dishonored? I don't know about you, but rape is such a heinous crime which no one would wish upon even their worst enemy or his/her daughter/sister. Moreover, these kids protesting are college students, which means they were all born much after 1984. Who are you expecting to protest?

My brother please go easy with the swearing! If you are indeed a "Singh" then I think you should know better and have more respect for your fellow brothers and sisters (especially the younger readers) on this forum. If you disagree with something written or feel that passionately about something posted then why not show the original poster the error of their ways by holding what they have said against the infallible litmus test that is Gurbani.

Big bro, I apologize if the swearing made you feel offended, however I was at a complete loss for words when I read the words "deserve" and "rape" in the same sentence.

[Mehtab Singh]

I was at a complete loss for words when I read the words "deserve" and "rape" in the same sentence.

And so you chose to swear?