Woman allegedly gang-raped for second time in India

Police in northern India have arrested two men for allegedly raping a young woman for the second time in three years after she refused to withdraw the case against them.

The woman, a college student in her early 20s, is in a stable condition in hospital in Haryana state following last week’s attack, senior police officer Sanjay Kumar Singh said.

After the woman was first raped in 2013, three men were arrested.

Two of them were freed on bail pending the outcome of the trial, which is ongoing.

Mr Singh said those two were among five men who gang-raped the woman again last week.

The woman, from a poor family, had been raped in 2013 in Bhiwani, a town in Haryana.

Her family moved to another town in Haryana, Rohtak, after they were threatened by the suspects.

The accused men, who face life sentences if convicted in the first case, allegedly offered five million rupees (about €68,000) to the woman’s family to drop the rape complaint, the NDTV news channel reported.

The woman told police she was gang-raped again on July 13th because she was unwilling to withdraw the case.

Abduction

According to Mr Singh, the woman was abducted from outside her college in Rohtak, which is 89km west of New Delhi, and raped by the men.

She was then dumped at a desolate spot in the town, where police found her unconscious. They then took her to hospital.

The incident highlights the persistence of violence against women in India, despite a public outcry following the gang rape of a woman aboard a bus in New Delhi in December 2012, which also led to stronger laws against sexual assault.

PA