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.
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But
if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie
with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:
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And
she answered him, Nay, my brother, do not force me; for no such thing ought
to be done in Israel: do not thou this folly.
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And
I, whither shall I cause my shame to go? and as for thee, thou shalt be as one
of the fools in Israel. Now therefore, I pray thee, speak unto the king; for
he will not withhold me from thee.
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Howbeit
he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced
her, and lay with her.
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¶
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Then
Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her [was]
greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her,
Arise, be gone
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