India arrests 3rd suspect in fatal gang rape
LUCKNOW, India — Police arrested a third suspect yesterday in the gang rape and slaying of two teenage cousins found hanging from a tree in northern India, as a top state official said he was recommending a federal investigation into a case that has triggered national outrage.
The three suspects detained in the attack in Uttar Pradesh state are cousins in their 20s from an extended family. They face murder and rape charges, crimes punishable by the death penalty, said police officer N. Malik. Two other suspects from the same village also are being sought, he said.
Facing growing criticism for a series of rapes, authorities in Uttar Pradesh, which has a long-standing reputation for lawlessness, also arrested two police officers and fired two others on Friday for failing to investigate when the father of one of the teenagers reported the girls missing earlier in the week.
India has a long history of tolerance for sexual violence. But the gang rape and killing of the 14- and 15-year-old girls — which was followed by TV footage showing their corpses swaying as they hanged from a mango tree — caused outrage across the nation.
The father who reported the girls missing, Sohan Lal, has demanded a federal investigation.
“I don’t expect justice from the state government as state police officers shielded the suspects,” said Lal, a poor farm laborer who refused to accept a payment of $8,500 offered by the state government as financial help. He told reporters yesterday that he would accept no financial assistance until the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s FBI, takes over the case.
Such government payments are common in India when poor families face high-profile calamities, and Lal’s unusual refusal — particularly for a man living in desperate poverty — was likely to focus attention on his demands for a federal investigation.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said he was recommending to the federal government a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation. Under Indian law, a state can make only a recommendation, and it is then up to the federal government to ask the CBI to investigate.
Dozens of members of the All India Democratic Women’s Association marched through the streets of New Delhi, India’s capital, yesterday. They demanded the immediate arrest of the two fugitive suspects and justice for the victims.
“Enough is enough. Women will not tolerate such atrocities any longer,” the protesters chanted, asking state authorities to take crimes against women seriously.
Official statistics say about 25,000 rapes are committed every year in India, a nation of 1.2 billion people. Activists, though, say that number is just a tiny percentage of the actual number, because victims are often pressed by family or police to stay quiet about sexual assaults.