India Gang Rape Suspects Blame Victim for Being Out 'on the Streets at Night'

[DonViejo]

Source: The Atlantic Wire

ALEXANDER ABAD-SANTOS 9:27 AM ET

Three men who police say brutally raped 23-year-old Jyoti Singh Pandey on a bus in New Delhi — after which one of them allegedly tried to run her over with it — will plead not guilty to charges of rape and murder. The men will, apparently, blame pretty much every gross thing you've heard about them on Indian cops, the victim, and her boyfriend. "Until today I have not seen a single incident or example of rape with a respected lady," says, Manohar Lal Sharma, the lawyer for the attorney representing the bus driver, his brother, and another man on the bus, in Andrew MacAskill's report for Bloomberg. "Even an underworld don would not like to touch a girl with respect."

In the eyes of the defense, then, what is supposed to define respect? "Sharma said the male companion of the murdered 23-year-old was 'wholly responsible' for the incident as the unmarried couple should not have been on the streets at night," MacAskill reported. "We are only hearing what the police are saying. This is manipulated evidence. It's all on the basis of hearsay and presumption," Sthe lawyeharma told Reuters.

But doctors in Singapore said that Pandey, unnamed at the time, suffered abdominal injuries so severe that she needed three abdominal surgeries and eventually died from injuries sustained from her attack. And Pandey's boyfriend, who was with her on the bus, gave an interview to an Indian television station on January 4 and described the attack (via the AP):

"I gave a tough fight to three of them. I punched them hard. But then two others hit me with an iron rod," he said. The woman tried to call the police using her mobile phone, but the men took it away from her, he said. They then took her to the rear seats of the bus and raped her.

"The attack was so brutal I can't even tell you ... even animals don't behave like that," the man said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2013/01/india-gang-rape-suspects-blame-victim-being-out-streets-night/60756/

[niyad]

1. this woman-hating bastard is a prime example of a discussion here on DU yesterday

(thank you, seabeyond, for this excellent post, "the patriarchal utility of the threat of rape&quot

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022154026

[SemperEadem]

3. quite so...

it just never ends...

[Scairp]

16. Well we knew this was coming

What else do you expect from a misogynist society like India? And probably a lot of Indians will agree with this line of defense. The blaming of the victim is all they have, after all. I'm sure it won't fly but only serves to heap more agony on the family of the victim. They and their attorney are pigs and I hope the courts end up making them squeal for their lives.

[niyad]

17. it isn't any different than the defense of rapists in this country, with practically the same words

and certainly the same mentality. look at some of the comments about the young victim in steubenville, for example. there is just as much misogyny here, see the o-reilly comment below.

[SemperEadem]

2. I still fail to understand

why respectable men are out on the streets at night, too. I mean, that is the backhanded inference here. Why are respectable people, period, out on the street at night, if just being out makes them complicit in the lack of control demonstrated by vicious animals--and what do you do with mad animals? You kill them.

A respectable man would not have raped the woman in the first place. So therefore, the lawyer is pretty much saying that his clients aren't respectable men--and if that's the case, then perhaps they do need to be removed from society.

The government needs to come down hard on this.. or face sanctions.

[niyad]

5. according to that scum lawyer, they never would have done anything if only the woman

had not been out. despite the fact that, clearly, they had planned it for SOMEONE--curtained, lights out, etc.

typical lawyer defense, but this needs to stop.

[riderinthestorm]

4. Reccing for more exposure, not because I agree with these repulsive comments/attitude.

Patriarchy on steroids. Despicable.



Said essentially the same thing on the other (duplicate) thread but not sure which one gets locked so decided to make sure I said my piece on BOTH.

[lunatica]

6. Yeah, that'll fly

[DetlefK]

7. By that logic...

They raped her, because she was out at night.
But that qualifier fits to many women.
Accordingly, they will rape any women they will meet by night on the street.

A lawyer shouldn't say that his client belongs in jail...

[juajen]

8. They are not human. I hope they are raped to death.

[Solly Mack]

9. Sick fucks

[Skittles]

10. and he speaks like this in public?

imagine what he REALLY thinks

[Dont call me Shirley]

11. Couldn't possibly be the rapists inability to control their own actions?!

[historylovr]

12. 'Xcuse me, Mr. Sharma, but it's your clients

who aren't respectable. They're the ones who shouldn't have been out on the streets at night, looking for a victim. They make me sick. The death penalty is too good for them. Scum sucking pigs.

That poor woman.

[alp227]

13. The Indian rapists could easily be fans of American hate radio or Fox News.

"She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning." --Bill O'Reilly on NYC rape victim Jennifer Moore in 2006.

[niyad]

18. I had forgotten about that hate-filled comment. thanks for the reminder.

[Ken Burch]

14. K&R so that more people can see this insanity. n/t.

[Jennicut]

15. The details of this are so horrific.

These pigs disgust me. They deserve nothing less then life in prison.

[niyad]

19. . . .

[DreamGypsy]

20. If it wasn't bad enough before: Indian gang-rape case states that the attackers made plans...

Caution: some extreme violence reported at the link.

The police report in the Indian gang-rape case states that the attackers made plans earlier in the evening to find a victim to rape and kill: http://news.msn.com/world/police-say-india-rape-suspects-hunted-victim

NEW DELHI – The gang of men charged with the rape and murder of an Indian physiotherapy student deliberately tried to find a woman to rape and kill and ended the night with blood on their clothes, a police report seen by Reuters said.

Five men, along with a teenager who says he is under 18, gathered for dinner at a dwelling in a south Delhi slum on the evening of Dec. 16 and there hatched the plot to find a target, according to the dossier given to court by the prosecution.

The accused "decided ahead of time" they would look for a woman and "intended to kill her." the police report claims.

The file, which runs to more than 600 pages, contains the prosecution's evidence in the case, which it describes as including forensic evidence against the men, along with confessions, witness statements and medical reports

The defense attorneys question the investigation and have not yet responded to the documents.

Words fail.

[NickB79]

21. So they couldn't control themselves?

EI you're no more than your animal instincts? Fine, then you should be treated the same way we treat dogs that can't control their instincts: cut off their balls.