Hundreds of protesters in New Delhi gathered on Sunday to protest the news that one of the men convicted 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old intern has been released after just three years in prison.
The victim, Jyoti Singh, was on a private bus in New Delhi, called the rape capital of India, traveling with a male friend when both of them were beaten and she was raped by every other man on the bus. Days later, she died. Her male friend, Awindra Pratap Pandey, survived the attack.
One of the assailants, who was a minor when he attacked Singh, was released Sunday because three years is the maximum detention minors in India can serve and he was brought to a rehabilitation home to “undergo psychological rehabilitation, be given sewing work, and monitored,” according to the Washington Post.
Activists are demanding the age for being considered a juvenile change from 18 years old to 16 years old. India’s Parliament is in the process of considering a bill that would allow juveniles to be tried as adults for crimes such as gang rape and murder.
In March of 2014 four of the defendants who were adults at the time wand were found guilty of murder, rape, unnatural offenses, and destruction of evidence in 2013 were given the death sentence. A couple days later, the Supreme Court of India gave two of the men a stay. Now all of the remaining men are appealing the death sentence by hanging. Another man found guilty of her rape and murder died by suicide in prison.
While the government cracked down on rape and passed new sexual assault laws, officials’ attitudes about rape have a long way to go.
In 2013 the then-head of India’s top investigative agency infamously said, “If you can’t prevent rape, you enjoy it,” which further fueled outrage over the way officials respond to rape cases in the country. Local police forces have also been accused to showing apathy in dealing with rape cases and of even bullying one teenage victim into withdrawing her complaint.
New Delhi had 1,813 rape cases in 2014 — up from 1,441 the year before, according to the Straits Times.