A horrific incident of sexual violence against a newlywed couple has occurred in Kolkata, India, which recently gained attention due to the rape and murder of a female doctor.
According to international news outlets, including the Times of India, on Thursday, eight assailants gang-raped a 19-year-old woman near the Kanchrapara railway station in West Bengal.
The attackers abducted the victim in the early morning while she was walking along the railway tracks with her husband and sexually assaulted her.
After receiving the report, the police arrested and detained all eight suspects by noon that day. All of them were identified as day laborers from Kanchrapara.
On the day of the incident, the couple, residents of Kalyani in West Bengal, had intended to spend the night at Kanchrapara railway station. Reports indicate they were wandering the streets after being driven out by family members who opposed their marriage.
India is infamous for its high rates of sexual violence. According to government statistics, 31,500 cases of rape were reported in 2022 alone.
In December 2012, a global outcry erupted when a 23-year-old female college student in New Delhi was gang-raped and brutally assaulted by five male adults and a juvenile on a bus, then left to die on the street.
Although the Indian government subsequently amended laws to allow for death penalties for rapists, sexual assaults against women continue to occur frequently across the country.
Experts suggest that many cases go unreported due to a lack of trust in the Indian police and the stigma attached to victims of sexual violence.
According to BNN Breaking and other sources, politicians and citizens in India are demanding stricter judicial measures to ensure that perpetrators face legal consequences and prevent such incidents from happening again.
