Pune Gangrape Case: Not much has changed in India for women ever since Nirbhaya’s battle sent shockwaves across the country. Crimes against women from every age group continue to take place in massive numbers. Ministers continue to accuse women of being violated and absolve men of all accountability. The law continues to severely fail women. Women continue to get threats and are eve-teased as they try to step out of their homes. The Pune gangrape case is yet another reminder of how women’s safety has gone up for a toss in India.
A 14-year-old minor girl was abducted from the Pune railway station and gangraped at various secluded areas of the city last week. The girl had gone to see a friend on August 31, 10:30 pm at the railway station. “When her friend could not come, she was looking for an autorickshaw when one auto driver approached her and offered to take her back home. However, he took the autorickshaw in a different direction and picked one of his friends en route and both assaulted her at a secluded spot. Later, they threatened to hurt her parents if she raised an alarm and kept on passing her to different locations. Her parents had registered a missing person complaint, and a case of kidnapping was registered based on it on September 1,” the police statement read.
The police were able to track down eight of the thirteen accused through CCTV camera footage. A Hindustan Times report states that a Pune court has sent the eight accused to police custody for ten days. The hunt for the remaining five accused is still underway. Meanwhile, the girl is undergoing treatment at Sassoon hospital in Pune. A statement by police says that she is in a stable condition. She was discovered by the Chandigarh Railway police. The men had left her in the Pune-Jammu Tawi Jhelum express train on September 2, at 5:30 pm.
According to Namrata Patel (Deputy commissioner of Police), two out of the eight men arrested are railway station workers. Five of them are auto drivers and one is an air conditioner repairer. The men have been booked under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 377 (unnatural offences), 376DA (gang rape of a minor girl) and under certain sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act as well.
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