A 19 year old student studying for the Indian Administrative Service, was tied up and gang-raped for three hours by four men in Bhopal, who took tea and gutka breaks during the ordeal. Things were only worsened when the police reportedly failed to act on their feet, and instead sat on the woman's complaint for hours, refusing to investigate, until she and her parents found two of the rapists and dragged them to the police station.
The woman, who had already undergone undeserved agony, was allegedly accused of making up a “filmy” story by the first police officer she approached. Senior officer Dharmendra Singh informed that the officer in question, sub-inspector RN Tekam has been suspended, reluctantly admitted a shocking 11-hour delay in filing a case. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister suspended five other polic officers as outrage and protests grew in the city. Police officials have also been accused of trying to shush the crime.
The teenager was assaulted near the city's Habibganj Railway station, 100 metres from a railway police post. While she usually took a train from the station to her hometown after her coaching classes for the IAS, that evening she decided to take a shorter route. The woman was grabbed by one of the accused, Golu Bihari, who had been drinking with his brother-in-law Amar Bhuntu when they spotted her. As she kept fighting them, they hit her, tied her up, and raped her. In her FIR, the victims said while Bihari left to get cigarettes and tobacco, he left Amar with her. When asked for clothes as hers were torn, Golu allegedly got clothes, but returned with two more men. All four men took turns to rape the woman till 10 pm, the police said.
When let go, she walked to a railway police post at the Habibganj station, where she called her parent, both of whom are in the security forces. Her father took her to a police station the next morning, only to be redirected to two others. In a country like India, where crimes like rape happen more often than one would care to admit, it is expected of the government- state or centre, to bring upon stringent laws. If only leaders put their authority to good use, women of one of the fastest-developing nations would not have to fear for their life.
