Delhi Bus Rape Convict Claims Woman was Responsible for Attack
One of the men arrested for the gang rape of 23-year-old Jyoti Singh has stated in an interview that she was to blame for her assault and that, “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”
The gang rape occurred in 2012 on a bus in Delhi, sparking international outrage and intense scrutiny on India’s laws on sexual violence. Jyoti lost her life two weeks after the attack whilst her male friend who accompanied her suffered broken limbs but survived.
The man, 26-year-old Mukesh Singh, was driving the bus at the time of the attack. Singh said in a documentary interview that Jyoti and her male friend should not have tried to fight back otherwise the gang would not have inflicted such a savage beating. Calling her death an “accident” Singh claims, “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”
Although Singh states he had no participation in the rape, DNA evidence suggests otherwise and court officials claim even if Singh did not commit the rape, he should have intervened.
Showing little remorse Singh went on, “You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands,” he says in the interview. “A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”
Although death sentences have been handed to the men, a harsh sentence rarely handed out, campaigners say not enough has been done since. Singh, who has also been sentenced to death, believes the punishment will have negative effects for future rape victims.
“The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls,” he says. “Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”
Lawyers who defended the remaining convicts in court expressed similar views about women, lawyer AP Singh said, “If my daughter or sister engaged in pre-marital activities and disgraced herself and allowed herself to lose face and character by doing such things, I would most certainly take this sort of sister or daughter to my farmhouse, and in front of my entire family, I would put petrol on her and set her alight.”
Another defence lawyer who acted in the case, ML Sharma, says, “In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6:30 or 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening with any unknown person.”
The documentary titled India’s Daughter, on the Delhi rape and its subsequent effect, will premiere on Sunday 8th March on BBC Four at 10:00pm.
