PATNA: Indian police on Saturday arrested 14 people suspected of kidnapping, raping and burning to death a teenage girl, the latest in rising crimes against women in India despite toughening of laws.
District Magistrate Jitendera Singh said the accused abducted the girl from Chatra, a village in eastern Jharkhand state, while she was attending a wedding ceremony on Thursday. Some of them allegedly raped her before letting her go home.
The village council leaders imposed a fine of 50,000 rupees ($770) on the accused the next day. Singh said the suspects beat up the girl's family members for complaining against them and burned her to death after finding her at home alone on Friday.
Singh said police were searching for the main suspect in the case.
India has been shaken by a series of sexual assaults since 2012, when a student was gang-raped and murdered on a moving New Delhi bus. That attack galvanized a country where widespread violence against women had long been quietly accepted.
While the government has passed a series of laws increasing punishment for rape of an adult to 20 years in prison, it's rare for more than a few weeks to pass without another brutal sexual assault being reported.
Responding to widespread outrage over the recent rape and killings of young girls and other attacks on children, India's government last month approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12.
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Indian police arrest 14 in rape, killing of girl
Indian police arrest 14 in rape, killing of girl
- India's government last month approved the death penalty for people convicted of raping children under age 12.
- Sexual assault is a major problem in India, in 2016 there were 40,000 rape cases reported.
Ukraine sanctions Belarus leader for supporting Russian invasion
- Ukraine on Wednesday sanctioned Belarus’s long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko for providing material assistance to Russia in its invasion and enabling the “killing of Ukrainians.”
KYIV: Ukraine on Wednesday sanctioned Belarus’s long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko for providing material assistance to Russia in its invasion and enabling the “killing of Ukrainians.”
Lukashenko is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies and allowed his country to be used as a springboard for Moscow’s February 2022 attack.
Russia has also deployed various military equipment to the country, Ukraine alleges, including relay stations that connect to Russian attack drones, fired in their hundreds every night at Ukrainian cities.
“Today Ukraine applied a package of sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko, and we will significantly intensify countermeasures against all forms of his assistance in the killing of Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement.
Russia has also said it is stationing Oreshnik missiles in Belarus, a feared hypersonic ballistic weapon that Putin has claimed is impervious to air defenses. It has twice been fired on Ukraine during the war — launched from bases in Russia — though caused minimal damage as experts said it was likely fitted with dummy warheads both times.
Zelensky also accused Lukashenko of helping Moscow avoid Western sanctions.
The measures are likely to have little practical effect, but sanctioning a head of state is a highly symbolic move.
Ukraine and several Western states sanctioned Putin at the very start of the war.
Lukashenko has at times tried to present himself as a possible intermediary between Kyiv and Moscow.
Initial talks on ending Russia’s invasion in the first days of the war were held in the country.
But Kyiv and its Western backers have largely dismissed his attempts to mediate, seeing him as little more than a mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
Lukashenko is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest allies and allowed his country to be used as a springboard for Moscow’s February 2022 attack.
Russia has also deployed various military equipment to the country, Ukraine alleges, including relay stations that connect to Russian attack drones, fired in their hundreds every night at Ukrainian cities.
“Today Ukraine applied a package of sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko, and we will significantly intensify countermeasures against all forms of his assistance in the killing of Ukrainians,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement.
Russia has also said it is stationing Oreshnik missiles in Belarus, a feared hypersonic ballistic weapon that Putin has claimed is impervious to air defenses. It has twice been fired on Ukraine during the war — launched from bases in Russia — though caused minimal damage as experts said it was likely fitted with dummy warheads both times.
Zelensky also accused Lukashenko of helping Moscow avoid Western sanctions.
The measures are likely to have little practical effect, but sanctioning a head of state is a highly symbolic move.
Ukraine and several Western states sanctioned Putin at the very start of the war.
Lukashenko has at times tried to present himself as a possible intermediary between Kyiv and Moscow.
Initial talks on ending Russia’s invasion in the first days of the war were held in the country.
But Kyiv and its Western backers have largely dismissed his attempts to mediate, seeing him as little more than a mouthpiece for the Kremlin.
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