Bhopal: Locals beat up rapists as police parade them publicly
Taking a leaf out of Anil Kapoor starrer 'Nayak,' locals in Bhopal rained blows on four rapists as police paraded them publicly yesterday. This new practice has encouraged women to come forward and lodge complaints, police said. But mob justice can get out of hand, like when people in Arunachal beat a rape-murder accused to death. His alleged crime hadn't even been proved.
Two men raped the girl while other two kept watch
In this case, 21-year-old Shailendra asked his former girlfriend, a junior of the same college, to meet him at a restaurant. But there, he snatched her phone and forced her to accompany him to his friend's room. Three of his friends were waiting there. Shailendra and another raped her while the other two stood guard. After they let her go, she approached police.
Three years ago, hundreds in Nagaland assaulted suspect to death
In 2015, hundreds of people in Nagaland dragged a rape accused out of jail, assaulted him to death, then hung his body publicly. Some reports linked it to ethnic tensions: the accused was a Muslim in a Christian-dominated region. The incident gained international attention. "Violence against women needs to be tackled with swift state responses, not barbarism by self-appointed vigilantes," said Amnesty International.
MP has seen an alarmingly high number of sexual crimes
There's a chance of the Bhopal-like mob justice turning into something out of control. But CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has asked police to crack down on sexual crimes amid a drastic rise in such cases. In 2015, MP registered 24,135 crimes against women. 4,391 were rapes, the highest among states. In 2016, out of 26,604 crimes against women, 4,882 were rapes.
MP passes bill prescribing death for raping girls under 12
Recently, the Assembly unanimously passed the Public Safety Bill proposing death penalty for rapists of girls aged 12 years or below. If someone rapes a woman on the pretext of marriage, it will be treated as a cognizable crime. Repeated stalking can lead to fines of Rs. 1L. The possibility of extending the bill to minor boys may be discussed later, a minister said.
