Recent incidents in Delhi and Bihar have put women’s safety back in focus, with official crime data showing the scale of crimes against women across India. (Image is AI-Generated)
“Janab.” That is the word three men allegedly used on the evening of September 21 to convince a 17-year-old girl and her friend at Aastha Kunj Park, next to Delhi’s Kalkaji Mandir, that they were policemen. They were not. Delhi Police say the men separated the two, took the girl to a secluded part of the park and sexually assaulted her, then threatened her into silence. All three have been arrested. One, whom police call the alleged mastermind, was injured in an encounter. Then came Samastipur. A 56-second video surfaced this week from Jagatsinghpur village in Bihar: a girl who had stopped on an embankment road with a male companion to take photographs is surrounded by a group of men, grabbed, and dragged back each time she tries to walk away. The boy fled. Police say the incident happened on September 15. Days earlier, it was Jamui.