Dadri Mob Lynching
On Sep 28th, Mohammad Akhlaq, a 50-year-old man was lynched by a mob and his son, Danish, a 22-year-old was brutally beat up, since they were rumoured to have consumed beef and stored it for later consumption. A riot-like situation formed when the man’s relatives were not allowed to be part of the funeral proceedings.
This incident earned a lot of attention, not just owing to its brutality, but owing to certain extremely insensitive statements made by popular politicians, involvement of a BJP politician’s son and police action turning the victim into an accused.
Laws, Legislation And Local Bodies
On October 5th, the Supreme Court will explore whether rape survivors can testify using web-applications such as Skype, in order to protect their privacy and avoid any intimidation. This is being explored for the case of an Irish national who was raped in 2013. The prosecution informed the court that it will be difficult for the survivor to return to India to depose.
In Kolhapur, a local committee of Muslim clerics in the city distributed notes ordering the local community not to encourage their women to contest the municipal corporation elections.
In some positive news, here is a news report that analyses 30 Panchayats in Rajasthan, where more girls are born than boys.
Punjab & Haryana High Court rejected the abortion plea of a 14-year-old rape survivor since the foetus is 20 weeks old and theMedical Termination of Pregnancy Act does not allow termination of pregnancy beyond 20 weeks.
The Rape Case of Raghaveshwara Bharathi
The influential seer of Ramachandrapura Mutt, had been asked to undergo potency tests last week after a charge sheet filed against him for rape. While we are debating the procedure of a potency test borders on irrational, the accused did not turn up for the potency test and has been given bail as well. In 2014, a woman filed a rape complaint against this godman, for which no action was taken until a year later. After a year, this man was let out on bail and the survivor & witnesses received several threatening calls.
The Ugliness Of Caste
In Uttar Pradesh, a 90-year old man was attacked with an axe and was later set on fire, as a result of which he died for the “crime” of entering a temple being Dalit.
A 22-year-old Dalit youth was shot in a village in Haryana over a scuffle with another person of the same village. However, what followed was police inaction owing to which, an agitated group of relatives and locals torched two Haryana Roadways buses to protest this inaction.
LGBTQ Issues
Here is a first person account of an India-American LGBTQ activist, who was “booed, shoved and roughed up” by the South Asian community when a group of them were holding a peaceful stand to bring attention to LGBTQ issues at San Jose during Prime Minister Modi’s visit.
A mall in Hyderabad restricts entry to trans women for no reason except that they are trans women.
Reported Rapes
Several horrific cases of rape and child sexual abuse have been reported in the last week.
Featured Image Credit: A picture of Akhlaq’s family | muslimmirror.com
