New Delhi, May 28 (EFE).- Police in the south Indian city of Bengaluru on Friday said they have held five suspects for alleged torture and gang rape of a woman that was video-graphed and circulated on social media.
The brutal crime, which took place in India’s tech hub housing offices and data centers of many foreign firms, has triggered a social media outrage.
Two of the arrested accused were shot in the leg on Friday morning as they allegedly tried to escape when police took the suspects to the crime spot for reconstructing the brutal event, Indian broadcaster NDTV said, citing deputy commissioner of police Shranappa SD.
An officer told EFE that the accused, including two women, were arrested on Thursday after police identified them from the nauseating clip.
The police said the suspects and the victim are all from the same group from Bangladesh.
“Based on the contents of the video and preliminary investigation, a case of rape and assault has been registered against six persons, including two women,” Bangalore police said in a statement.
“All of them are part of the same group and are believed to be from Bangladesh.”
Police said she was brought to India for trafficking and was “tortured and brutalized” over a financial dispute.
Police were yet to record the statement of the victim, who is believed to be in a neighboring state of Karnataka.
“(A) police team has been dispatched to trace her so that she could join the investigation,” the statement said.
The incident has once again highlighted a persistent problem of widespread crime against women in India.
According to the country’s National Crime Records Bureau, nearly 406,00 crimes against women were recorded in 2019, marking a 7.3 percent rise compared to a year ago.
The NCRB, in its report last year, noted that an average of 87 rape cases was recorded each day in 2019 in the country.
India witnessed massive protests against violence against women in December 2012, when the brutal gang rape and murder of a young physiotherapist on board a bus in Delhi sent shockwaves across the country.
The case marked a turning point in the country.
The government toughened laws against sexual violence. The process to hand capital punishment to some of the aggressors was also accelerated, although critics have said that the measures have been insufficient and failed to stop the violence. EFE
mt-ssk
