Crime23 June, 20263 min read
Begusarai Police Arrest Two After Men Gang-Rape Soma in Bihar Home
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Bihar woman gang-raped by multiple men inside her home in Begusarai. Police apathy during investigation drew criticism from campaigners and media.
Bihar assault, police response
A 28-year-old mother of four, called Soma by the BBC, said she was attacked in her own home and gang-raped by a group of men in a village in Begusarai on the night of 11 June, with the incident later drawing national attention after hospital officials confirmed she was assaulted with objects and doctors removed them.
Begusarai superintendent of police Maneesh told the BBC that Soma's "medical report has confirmed sexual assault" and said there were "three named and two unidentified accused" and that police had arrested two while a Special Investigation Team (SIT) conducted raids to arrest the others.
The BBC reported that Soma said five men barged into her home while she was in the toilet outside her one-room home at night, and she said, "They stripped me, gagged me, and tied my hands. When I tried to fight back, they slashed my chest with a blade and raped me," describing the assault and injuries.
Soma said her husband initially dismissed her groans as noises made by a stray cat, but then he grew suspicious and tried to check, and the BBC reported that the police station head Rajiv Kumar was suspended for "negligence, apathy, and insensitivity" after the couple said police refused to file a complaint and sent them away.
The BBC also reported that Soma was turned away by a nearby private clinic on the night of the attack, then taken to a government community health centre for first aid before being referred to a district hospital, where she later told the BBC that the doctor asked her, "Were you raped as well?" while administering an injection.
Objects removed, conflicting accounts
Soma told the BBC that after she regained consciousness on 12 June, she told her husband and the doctor who treated her about the gangrape, and she said the doctor asked her while administering an injection, "Were you raped as well?" The BBC reported that Ashok Kumar, the Civil Surgeon of Begusarai, said Soma was brought in with complains of stomach pain and that they were informed of the gangrape only on 13 June "after which the physicians immediately conducted her medical examination". Soma and her husband told the BBC that after she was sent home, she was back in hospital the next day after she lost consciousness, and she was again discharged a day later.
Soma said a village midwife warned there was something inside her body, and on the morning of 18 June Soma showed her husband a bullet casing that had dropped out from her vagina, while Civil Surgeon Kumar told the BBC, "We re-examined her and doctors removed other objects from her." The BBC also reported that police say some accused have a previous history of crimes and have invoked sections dealing with gang rape, while the BBC said an FIR was registered at the local police station on 13 June.
Broader outrage and policy
The BBC framed the Begusarai case as reviving memories of the 2012 Delhi assault, noting that thirteen years after the gang rape of an Indian woman on a bus in the capital Delhi made global headlines, a new case in Bihar came close in brutality.
“Her condition is stable and she is out of danger.”
In a separate report, El Economista described a different case in New Delhi involving a five-year-old girl, saying the alleged attacker was arrested this morning by police in the Muzaffpur district of Bihar after fleeing by train from New Delhi.
El Economista reported that the hospital's chief medical officer, D.K. Sharma, said, "Her condition is stable and she is out of danger," and that the girl would undergo reconstructive surgery after injuries to her intimate parts.
The same El Economista report said Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh condemned the police’s handling of the case, promised "strict actions" and stressed that society "needs to do some introspection and work to eradicate the evil of rape," while it also said president Pranab Mukherjee urged urgent measures to bring the culprits to justice.
El Economista added that UNICEF urged to "improve the safety of girls and women" in the country and that the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, was expected to arrive in India for a ten-day visit aimed at investigating "the cases of violence against women."