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Teenager who was tied up and gang raped mocked by police as they dismiss claims

Officers at three police stations in Bhupal refused to file a report on the 19-year-old's ordeal

Chris Baynes
Friday 03 November 2017 20:22 GMT
The 2012 gang-rape of Jyoti Singh on a Delhi bus raised worldwide awareness of India's culture of rape
The 2012 gang-rape of Jyoti Singh on a Delhi bus raised worldwide awareness of India's culture of rape

Indian police have refused to file a report on the gang rape of a student who was allegedly tied up by four men who took tea breaks during the attack.

Three police stations dismissed the 19-year-old's complaint, according to The Times of India which reported that one officer had mocked her for "coming with a filmy story".

Detectives in Bhopal, in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, only began investigating the attack after the teenager and her parents - both themselves police inspectors - accosted two of the suspects themselves.

The city's police force has suspended one officer for failing to file a report on the woman's ordeal, which lasted three hours and took place just 100 metres from a busy rail station.

Officers at two other stations reportedly refused register the crime as it happened outside their jurisdictions.

The woman was allegedly grabbed by two of the men. She fought back but was hit with a stone, stripped, tied up and raped. Two other men later joined and raped her, it was reported.

They allowed her to dress and leave but forced her to hand over her earrings, watch and phone.

Police have arrested four suspects and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan pledged the case would be heard in a fast-tracked court.

He said action would be taken against the police officers who refused to file the report.

"It's one of the worst experiences of my life," the victim's mother told The Times of India. "If I, as a policewoman, have to face such problems in filing my daughter's gang rape complaint, I can't imagine what a common man goes through."

India's parliament introduced fast-track courts to hear rape cases after campaigners said the country's legal system was slow to prosecute such crimes. But sexual assaults and violence against women remain widespread."

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