NEW DELHI/Allahabad/Bhubaneswar: Rape cases in New Delhi has jumped 23 per cent in 2012 from a year earlier, according to official figures, highlighting rising crime against women in the sprawling metropolis.
The numbers were released as the trial of five men was set to begin on Monday on accusations of murder, rape and kidnapping over the death last month of a 23-year-old gang-rape victim, whose assault sparked nationwide protests,
The case against a sixth defendant, who says he is 17, is being heard separately by a juvenile court.
“The rate of conviction in rapes in Delhi is much higher than the national rate,” Delhi police Commissioner Neeraj Kumar told reporters on Friday.
“[But] we are not taking solace in this. We need to do much more,” said Kumar, who has faced fierce public criticism for the perceived failure of his police force to check mounting crime against women.
For 2012, some 706 rape cases were registered – a 23.43 per cent leap from the previous year, police said.
Some 45 cases of rape and 75 cases of sexual molestation were reported to police in the two weeks after the brutal gang rape attack on the physiotherapy student on December 16, police said.
The victim died in a Singapore hospital from massive internal injuries nearly two weeks after the assault.
New Delhi, a city of 16 million people, has long been called the “rape capital of India”.
Meanwhile, a student of the Allahabad University in Uttar Pradesh, allegedly sent an e-mail to a classmate that he was infatuated with, threatening her that she will meet “the same fate as the victim of the Delhi gang-rape” if she spurned his advances, a varsity official Saturday said.
Chairperson of the University’s Women’s Advisory Board Ranjana Kakkar told reporters here that a girl student approached her with a complaint about the offensive e-mail she had received a few days earlier.
“Needless to say, we are all shocked at the depravity that seems to have permeated among those privileged to have good education,” Kakkar said, adding the identity of both students would not be revealed.
On the other hand, two people have been arrested in Odisha’s Sundergarh district for raping a 13-year-old girl, police said Saturday.
The incident occurred January 10 near Chungimati village under Kansbahal police outpost area, but came to light only after the girl’s family lodged a complaint with the police Thursday, sub-divisional police officer S.K.Panigrahi told IANS.
Panigrahi said the girl had gone along with her friends to answer nature’s call on the banks of a river near the village. While returning, the girl went back alone to the river bank to collect something she had forgotten to take earlier.
While returning to join her friends, two people aged 40 and 25 dragged her to a secluded place and raped her, the police officer said.
The girl narrated the incident to her elder sister five days later.
Her family consulted villagers and informed the police Thursday, he said.
Police have arrested both the offenders. The victim was medically examined, the police officer said.
