ANGER IN INDIA
Police arrest 2nd suspect in gang rape of young journalist
NEW DELHI — Police on Saturday arrested a second man in the gang rape of a young photojournalist in the Indian financial hub of Mumbai, and said they had enough evidence to prosecute those responsible for a crime that has renewed public outcry over sexual violence in the country.
The victim, a 22-year-old Indian woman, remained in a hospital Saturday and was recovering well after being repeatedly raped by five men Thursday night in a deserted textile mill, said Mumbai’s police commissioner, Satyapal Singh.
She and a male colleague, who was tied up and beaten during the attack, had been on a maga- zine assignment as interns taking photographs of a south Mumbai neighborhood where upscale malls, trendy restaurants and luxury condominiums sit alongside sprawling slums and abandoned mills.
The first suspect arrested, an unemployed 19-year- old man from south Mumbai, appeared in court Saturday and was ordered to remain in custody until Aug. 30, police said. Dozens of protesters rallied and called for justice outside the court.
A second suspect was arrested before dawn Saturday and confessed to authorities about his involvement in the incident, Singh told reporters. Members of India’s elite crime unit were hunting three more suspects.
Singh said police had the evi- dence needed to prosecute the five suspects, including testimony given by the woman immediately after the attack while she was in the hospital receiving treatment.
The attack incensed many in India already sickened by sexual violence after the deadly gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a bus in New Delhi in December raised alarms about women’s safety and revealed a culture in which rape victims are often pressed by social pressure or police into keeping silent.
India is particularly worried about its image abroad, after a Swiss bicycle tourist was gang raped in March in central Madhya Pradesh state and an American woman was gang raped in June in the northern resort town of Manali.