5 men sentenced to death for gang rape and murder of teenage girl

An Indian court has sentenced five men to death for the gang rape and murder of a teenage girl and the murder of her father and infant niece.

The crime was committed in January 2021 when the men offered the girl and her family, all members of a deprived tribal community in the central state of Chhattisgarh, a ride on their motorcycles as they waited for transport public.

They then bludgeoned the teenager’s father to death as he tried to stop the rape and killed his three-year-old niece, prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra told AFP.

The last victim was found unconscious by villagers a few days later and died while being taken to hospital.

Five men were found guilty of rape and triple murder “and sentenced to death”, Mishra said on Thursday, the day after the court published the sentence.

A sixth man “was convicted of association with crimes, but his involvement in the rape was not proven, so he was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life for murder,” he said. he added.

India imposes the death penalty, although it is rarely used in practice.

On average, nearly 90 rapes a day have been reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people, but activists say many more go unreported.

A court in the eastern city of Kolkata sentenced a man to life in prison this week after being convicted of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor last year. The doctor’s family burst into tears, saying they were “shocked” by the sentence and hoping that his murderer would be hanged.

The discovery of his bloodied body in a public hospital in August fueled nationwide anger and protests to the chronic problem of violence against women.

The horrific nature of the attack drew comparisons to the gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus in 2012, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests. Four men convicted of the bus attack were executed in March 2020.

Last week, more than four dozen men were arrested for repeated sexual abuse of a teenagerwho said around 60 men targeted her in the southern state of Kerala over several years.

The men charged in the attacks include a childhood friend of the girl’s, as well as neighbors and family friends, police told CBS News’ sister network BBC News. There are at least five students from his university and former classmates from his school among the accused, according to Indian media outlet The News Minute.

The alleged abuse came to light last month when a team of counselors working under a government program visited her home.

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