Police arrest six as another woman is raped in India
Another sexual attack has happened to another woman on a bus in India.
The 29-year-old was raped in Punjab province in the North of the country.
Six men have been arrested in connection with this attack and they are due to appear in court this week.
It comes just weeks after the gang-rape and murder of a student on a bus in New Delhi sparked nationwide protests and global condemnation.
The mother of the 23-year-old student who died after that rape has said all six suspects, including one believed to be a juvenile, deserve to die.
In her first published comments, the mother told The Times of India newspaper that the youngest suspect participated in the most brutal aspects of the rape.
Five men have been charged with the student’s rape and murder and face a possible death penalty if convicted. The sixth suspect says he is 17 years old. If that is confirmed, he is likely to be tried in a juvenile court where the maximum sentence is three years in a reform facility.
The woman was raped and assaulted with a metal bar on December 16 and eventually died of her injuries. Rape victims are not identified in India, even if they die, and rape trials are closed to the media.
The case has sparked protests across India by women and men who say India’s legal system does not do enough to prevent attacks on women.
Women have told stories of relentless abuse – from catcalls to bus gropings to rapes – and of a police and judicial system that does little to stop it, often blaming victims’ behaviour.
The woman and her male friend were coming home from watching a film at a New Delhi shopping centre when they boarded a bus police say was carrying the defendants.
The woman’s friend, who has not been identified, has said he tried to defend the woman but was beaten unconscious. The two were eventually stripped and dumped from the bus.
