India's Hyderabad Jolted After Wave of Adolescent Rapes

© AFP 2023 / Noah SEELAMIndian students of Saint Joseph Degree college participate in an anti-rape protest in Hyderabad on September 13, 2013
Indian students of Saint Joseph Degree college participate in an anti-rape protest in Hyderabad on September 13, 2013 - Sputnik International, 1920, 07.06.2022
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Four unconnected incidents have been reported in the Indian city over the past ten days. Citizens have hit the streets to express their growing outrage, with local politicians’ sons implicated in one case.
The city of Hyderabad in India's Telangana state has been rocked after a string of rapes that have surfaced over the past ten days, leaving locals horrified.
On 28 May, a female teenager was reportedly gang-raped after meeting five young boys at a pub in the city's Jubilee Hills area. The boy allegedly offered her a ride home but instead took her to a secluded spot, the police said. Four of the five have been arrested and one remains at large, authorities informed.
The incident has sparked a war of words between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi Party (TRS) and opposition parties since two of the arrested boys are sons of TRS politicians. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress Party have staged protests to demand speedy justice for the victim.
In an unconnected yet chilling case, Indian media reported on 30 May that a 15-year-old girl had been raped by five people over a three-month period since March. As per the report, the perpetrators - including two minors - allegedly took the girl to hotels and other places before raping her. They are also accused of photographing her in intimate positions to blackmail her.
Police got involved when her parents suspected that something was wrong and took the girl to a doctor.
On 31 May, another case was reported as two men allegedly sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl. According to police, the teenager was picked up by a cab driver while she was going home from her grandmother's house. After her parents filed a missing person complaint, police found her in the city's Sultan Shahi area. Locals Shaik Kaleem Ali and Mohd Luqman Ahmed Yazdani were arrested on 3 June.
In a separate incident also reported on 31 May, salesman Mohammad Sufyan is accused of luring a minor who worked at a retail store with him and sexually assaulting her. After the girl complained of a stomach ache to her mother, an official complaint was lodged. Police later arrested Sufyan.
The wave of cases, and specifically the Jubille Hills case, has attracted the attention of the National Commission for Women (NCW), with NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma saying, "The matters being reported are serious because minor girls are being targeted”.
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