Reports coming out of India have revealed that no fewer than 22 men took turns in raping a disabled young girl over a seven month period.
According to the girl’s mother, she was drugged and raped repeatedly by the men at the apartment complex where her family lives in Chennai, India.
The mother reported the incident to the police who in turn rounded up 18 of the 22 men. The arrested men whose ages ranged from early 20’s to late 60’s engaged in a variety of professions including an elevator operator, gardener, housekeeper, electrician, security guards and plumbers who worked in and around the apartment complex where the girl’s family lives in Purasawalkam.
Although there are conflicting reports about her age (the times of India had reported the victim’s age to be 12 while others have put her age at 11), She was examined and treated at a hospital, which determined she had been raped by multiple men, according to evidence found on her.
SEE: RAPE: MAN BEATEN, TIED TO STAKE FOR RAPING 7 YEAR OLD GIRL
Narrating her ordeal, the girl told police that an elevator operator named Ravi Kumar, 66, first sexually assaulted her when she arrived home from school before she entered her family’s apartment. She alleged further that Kumar had raped her in a vacant apartment after which he invited two other men to rape her, two days later. The trio recorded the second rape assault and threatened to release the video if she told anyone.
Not satisfied however, Kumar still invited more and more men to join in the rape assaults; these men would inject the girl with sedatives and force her to drink “drug-laced soft drinks” before raping her. This was the routine for seven months.
According to the Police,
“This continued [until] the girl on Saturday told her older sister, a college student on a visit home from Delhi, about the trauma she was going through. The sister informed their parents, who filed a complaint with the Ayanavaram all women police.”
Social justice activists all over India have condemned the rape assault on the young girl with some expressing their wish that the trial is swift for the sake of the girl’s recovery.
“In this case (and all others), I hope that the system is kind to the children and ensures a speedy trial,” Bosko said. We need the same kind of anger for all cases of child sexual abuse.” Said Sherin Bosko, co-founder of nonprofit Nakshatra,
Other activists also decried the increasing sexual abuse and rape of children and women in recent years while citing several cases.
According to S. Namburajan, the state general secretary of Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently Abled & Caregivers
“Sexual attacks against disabled female children continue in Tamil Nadu. In Sivagangai, a 17-year-old hearing impaired girl was raped and killed in a village, while another such instance has happened in Aynavaram. We condemn these attacks and urge the state government to conduct mass awareness programs to curb this.”
India is known as the rape capital of the world with a massive increase in sexual violence against women in the last ten years.
In 2012 there was a fatal gang rape of a 23 year old woman that caught the attention of the world. More recently, India was thrown into an uproar when an 8 year old was raped and killed by 8 men in Jammu and Kashmir in April of 2018.