Hundreds of students march in Delhi after teenager reports gang-rape
Hundreds of students marched in Delhi demanding safer streets after a 17-year-old reported she was gang-raped by men posing as police officers.
Hundreds of students marched through Delhi on Wednesday evening demanding better safety for women, after a 17-year-old told police she had been gang-raped by three men posing as police officers at a park in the capital earlier this week.
The demonstrators — most of them women, several wearing face masks — marched near the scene of the alleged attack carrying placards reading “Our body is our own” and demanding freedom to go out at night without fear.
Senior police officer Vijay Kumar said officers shot and caught one suspect on Tuesday, and were questioning two more men, who are brothers, after the teenager reported the alleged assault. The father of the two brothers was cited in a local media report as saying they had been framed; police have not said how the arrested suspect responded to the charges.
The alleged assault happened barely 2km from Lady Shri Ram College, one of India’s leading women’s colleges, which suspended classes on Tuesday after the suspect was shot metres from its campus. Principal Kanika K Ahuja said classes were cancelled after the college learned of the incident, adding that students’ “safety, security, and well-being” was paramount.
More than 80 rapes are reported to police in India every day, according to National Crime Records Bureau data.
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