New Delhi
An Indian woman was allegedly gang raped and thrown into a canal along with her five-year-old child who, according to police, died from drowning.
Police said that one of the seven suspects who allegedly gang raped the woman have been arrested. The child, after being thrown in the canal with the mother, had died from drowning.
The victim has been admitted to a hospital 135km from Patna as police were able to identify only two of the seven persons accused of the crime.
“The woman’s medical examination is being done. An FIR (First Information Report) has been filed, while one accused has been arrested. The body of the child has been sent for post-mortem,” police officer KK Singh was quoted as saying by ANI.
“We are confirming other details in the case,” he added. Shock and anger had gripped India last month after a 20-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras died after being raped. The incident had reminded people of the infamous 2012 Delhi gang rape incident when a young woman died after being gang raped on a bus.
The Hathras woman was subjected to rape by four men of “upper caste” from her village. Last year, rape incidents were on the rise in India with the country reporting, on average, 87 new rape cases each day and 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women during the year.
This was a 7% rise from the rape crimes since 2018 according to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau last month. —AFP
