2 cops fired as Indians flay sexual assaults
Print Edition
FACING relentless media attention and growing criticism for a series of rapes, state officials in north India fired two police officers yesterday for failing to probe the disappearance of two teenage cousins, who were gang-raped by five men and later found hanging from a tree.
But in a country with a long history of tolerance for sexual violence, the firings also came as the state’s top official mocked journalists for asking about the attack.
“Aren’t you safe? You’re not facing any danger, are you?” Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said in the state capital Lucknow. “Then why are you worried? What’s it to you?”
The gang rape, with video of the girls’ corpses hanging from a mango tree and swaying gently in a breeze, was the top story yesterday on India’s relentless 24-hour news stations. But in just the past few days, Uttar Pradesh has also seen the mother of a rape victim brutally attacked and a 17-year-old girl gang-raped by four men.
Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state, with nearly 200 million people.
Yesterday, the state’s former chief minister lashed out at the ruling government.
“There is no law and order in the state,” said Mayawati. “It is the law of the jungle.”
Hours later, the chief minister ordered that suspects in the attack be tried in special “fast track” courts, to get around India’s slow judicial system.
The girls, who were 14 and 15, were raped in the tiny village of Katra, about 300 kilometers from Lucknow.
Police say they disappeared on Tuesday night after going into fields near their home to relieve themselves, since their house has no toilet. The father of one girl went to police that night to report them missing, but said they refused to help.
The bodies were discovered the next day.
On Thursday, officials suspended two local police officers for ignoring the father’s pleas for help. They were fired yesterday. Police also arrested two men from the village, and were searching for three more suspects, officials said.
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