The four men accused of raping and murdering a 27-year-old woman on the outskirts of Hyderabad have confessed to the gruesome crime. Meanwhile, mass protests swept across the state, resulting in heated standoffs with police.
Tens of thousands of people poured onto the streets of Hyderabad, and elsewhere across the state of Telangana, as the accused appeared before a district magistrate on Saturday. Police had to call in reinforcements to prevent lynching, escorting the suspects through the angry masses in one piece.
As the crowd grew increasingly violent, throwing slippers at the officers and refusing to let them pass, police were forced use batons to disperse the mob.
A 27-year-old veterinary surgeon was gang-raped and murdered before being burned, in the latest case to shock India
Protests have spread from Hyderabad to other cities, as well as online, as women share their fears for their safety
Hundreds of people on Saturday laid siege to a police station where four men are being held over the latest gruesome rape-murder to shock India.
Baton-wielding police pushed back crowds from the building in the southern city of Hyderabad where they said the 27-year-old veterinary surgeon was gang-raped, killed and then her body burned.
While the suspects were quickly detained, the killing sparked new outrage in a country that has been in the international spotlight over its handling of sex assaults since the brutal gang-rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in 2012.
“How anyone could subject another human being to such terrible, unprovoked violence is beyond imagination,” said former opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.
Police had to bring in reinforcements to bolster security around the Hyderabad police station. The suspects appeared before a magistrate and were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.
But police were also criticised as protests spread to other cities.
A woman who tried to stage a one-person demonstration outside the Indian parliament in New Delhi said she was beaten by police after refusing to go home.
Anu Dubey had sat outside the assembly carrying a sign questioning why she could not “feel safe” in her own country.
India, the second-most populous country in the world, has achieved annual growth exceeding 7 percent over the last 15 years and continues to pull millions of people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.
The country has halved its poverty rate over the past three decades and has seen strong improvements in most human development outcomes, a report by the international financial institution has found.
Growth is expected to continue and the elimination of extreme poverty in the next decade is within reach, said the bank, which warned that the country’s development trajectory faces considerable challenges.
It explained that the South Asian nation will need to achieve greater resource efficiency as it sustains growth, given its resource endowments and large population. Land must be used more productively in urban areas through the spatial transformation of cities to achieve agglomeration economies, and in rural areas through increased agricultural productivity. Water management will need to prepare for shifting water allocation to higher-value uses and for policies to increase the value of water use within sectors.
The World Bank pointed out that 230 million people are not properly connected to the electricity grid. It said that India’s rapidly growing economy needs investment in infrastructure, an estimated 8.8 percent of GDP, or $343 billion a year until 2030.
A particular challenge lies in the country’s declining female labor force participation, according to the bank. It is at about 27 percent and is among the lowest in the world, despite overcoming gender gaps in education, the financial institution said.
