A sunny day in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. A young man comes up to me and hands me the beautiful turquoise Indian edition of my book to sign. I look up at him: “You’re the guy who kept grinning at me when I was on the stage!”“Yes, Mam, I was really appreciating you,” he said, grinning again. I grin happily back at him and think, you’ve come a long, long, long way, baby.No, you’ve come a long way, Mam. At 17, I was gang-raped. At 20, I wrote about it in a women’s magazine in India, the first Indian survivor ever to speak out. At 49, I got a fright when that old piece resurfaced and I was thrust into the spotlight again. I wrote a “30-years-on” piece that went globally viral, and then proceeded to go back to my non-rape-oriented life. At 55, I’ve unleashed the book that’s been waiting all these years to be written, and now I’m zooming around the world with it. The prospect of a world tour was thrilling, but the prospect of the India part of it was frankly terrifying.I love my native country with a mad passion, but I am well aware of how horrifying it is – for women, for Muslims, for Dalits, for just about anyone who is not a kingpin in our current malignant climate. And I have watched from the sidelines for almost four decades and witnessed disgusting attitudes to sexual abuse: from intense hostility towards victims, who are traditionally considered better off dead, to every excuse for abusers, from denial to justification to explicit approval. Now that I look back, I realise that writing about it long ago wasn’t so much an act of bravery on my part as one of bottomless naivety.Given all this, I was rather daunted at the thought of facing uncurated audiences at the Jaipur literature festival. I found myself waking up at 3am with morbid visions of the people who raped me lying in wait for all these years, waiting to get me … and, more realistically, derision, judgment and nastiness from other people.Eek.And then I went to Jaipur, and was amazed.The same thing happened in Delhi, Mumbai and Kerala – fascination, trauma, even scepticism, but no voyeurism, no overt hostility. Somewhere along the line, time and history conspired to turn me from a weird teenage aberration into a Mam with something to say. Maybe it’s the streaks of grey hair. Maybe it’s some of the dramatic events of the past few years – the Jyoti Singh rape and murder, the seemingly unending stream of repugnant rape stories in the press. Whatever it is, I sense something new.It’s a hunger – for knowledge, for understanding, for something better. I saw it in the faces of the young grinning man, and in so many other young people.I know rape is entrenched, quotidian, epidemic. I know many people are clueless, malign, brutal. I know all this because I have seen all this. I see the trolls on Twitter, and roll my eyes at the newspaper headlines unable to sing a different tune, that insist on making me a sad downtrodden victim. But I also see some other things, things that would not have been possible when I wrote my first piece: My 80-year-old uncles and aunts showing up at my book launch radiating support and love, after almost four decades of not saying a word about the subject. My mother’s driver, hearing about my book, casually asking, “Have you mentioned your own rape?” The woman in Mumbai who wept while asking what to do about her father who loves her but is smothering her for her own protection. The hundreds of people in Jaipur who broke into spontaneous applause when I talked about rapists being ordinary men. The young man who stood up in the audience and said, “What can we do, Mam? What can we do to make it better?”I got off the plane in Delhi with terror in my heart. When I boarded the return flight, I did it filled with that most foolish, most fragile, most wonderful of feelings: belief that some people truly want to open their eyes and hearts and ears and understand, and change.Mam is grinning all the way to the next continent.• Sohaila Abdulali is the author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape. She will appear at the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House on 10 March. Topics Opinion comment

An Indian man has been arrested for allegedly raping and robbing a British tourist in the western state of Goa. The woman, 48, was attacked around 4:00 local time (22:30 GMT) on Thursday as she was walking to her hotel from a railway station, police told PTI news. The accused is a man from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. He fled after also taking three of her bags.Goa is one of India's top tourist destinations and its beaches attract thousands of foreigners every year.The woman is a regular visitor to the state. Police said she had been going there every year for the last 10 years.Police were able to track down the suspect with the help of CCTV footage from the railway station as well as the area where the crime occurred, according to the NDTV news website. Why India's rape crisis shows no signs of abating rA rape victim's two-year wait for justice This is one of several crimes against foreigners in the state.An Irish woman, Danielle McLaughlin, was raped and murdered while on holiday in Goa in 2017. Vikhat Bhagat, 24, was arrested soon after her murder and his trial, which began in April, is still under way. In 2008, Scarlett Keeling, a 15-year-old British teenager was raped and killed while on a trip in Goa. Her killers are yet to be caught. Two men who had faced charges of culpable homicide and grievous sexual assault were both cleared in 2016. Public outrage over sexual violence in India rose dramatically after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus.This year has seen the issue become a political flashpoint again, after a string of high-profile attacks against children.However incidents of rape and violence against women continue to be reported from across the country.

Two men have been arrested in Patna, in north-east India, after a video allegedly showing a woman being raped next to the holy River Ganges was shared widely on social media. Police say the men took turns to assault the victim and film it.The woman was reportedly dragged from the Ganges, where she had been bathing on Sunday morning.In the video, she can be heard asking the men to consider the "sanctity" of the river, revered within Hinduism.She also refers to it as "mother" - a term of affection and respect for the site.Police said on Wednesday the mobile phone used to film the alleged assault had been seized and would be sent to a forensic laboratory for analysis, the Times of India reports.Accounts conflict on how authorities learned of the incident - with police saying they only found out about it after seeing the clip online.Other local reports suggest the woman had been earlier turned away from a police station after trying to come forward. Was Delhi gang rape India's #Metoo moment? Does the death penalty actually deter rape? "She had completely suppressed the ordeal faced on Sunday and told no-one," rural superintendent Anand Kumar said on Wednesday. "The matter surfaced only after the video became viral on Tuesday afternoon."Mr Kumar said the woman, who is said to live in the same village as the suspects, then had to be persuaded to give a statement.According to crime statistics, a woman is raped in India about every 13 minutes - but many more incidents are believed to go unreported because of the stigma still attached to rape and sexual assault. How WhatsApp helped turn an Indian village into a lynch mob How social media helped catch rape suspect Scrutiny of sexual violence has grown in India since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in the capital Delhi.It sparked days of protests and forced the government to introduce tougher anti-rape laws, including the death penalty.This year has seen the issue become a political flashpoint again, after a string of high-profile attacks against children.

Two men have been arrested over the brutal rape of a seven-year-old girl in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh amid massive public anger.Hundreds of people have been out on the roads demanding justice for the victim, who is still in hospital with grievous injuries including stab wounds.The child was abducted outside her school on Tuesday, police said.People, including the chief minister of the state have demanded the death penalty for the rapists.Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters that the "beasts" committing such heinous crimes were a "burden on the earth" and did not "deserve to live". India outrage spreads over rape of eight-year-old girl Why India's rape crisis shows no sign of abating The state's lawyers union has also refused to represent the accused men in court. Doctors said the victim, who was found bleeding and unconscious on Wednesday morning, was out of danger but warned her injuries would take time to heal. Police said they were able to make the arrests after watching CCTV footage from near the school, which clearly showed one of the accused walking away with the girl after offering her sweets.

A 21-year-old has been arrested in connection with the rape, which occurred in the district of Shahdara in the northeastern part of the city, said Meghna Yadav, a deputy commissioner with the Delhi Police. She said she could not provide further details.Swati Maliwal, chairwoman of the Delhi Commission for Women, said the girl was in extreme pain after the attack.The girl's mother said the man also wrapped the hose around her daughter's neck after raping her on Monday. She described the man as a rag picker who rummages through refuse in the streets.The girl was in critical condition at a New Delhi hospital after undergoing surgery for injuries she suffered in the attack, officials said Wednesday. Her mother was by her bedside after the girl underwent hours of surgery."He should be hanged," the mother said of the suspect. "Life imprisonment is too small a punishment. It is nothing compared to what he has done."Asked whether she was concerned about the long-term mental effects of the assault, the girl's mother said, "She will have to forget about this. ... She should just forget."On Thursday, her mother said the girl was walking and eating and that doctors expected her to recover physically. "They are saying that thank God that your daughter is strong. ... This is the first time we have seen a girl with so much strength," she said.Maliwal told CNN her group was working on a rehabilitation plan for the young victim. "It is very unfortunate that these rape cases are not ending in Delhi," she said. "Police resources continue to be extremely low in Delhi."In a series of tweets, Maliwal provided additional details of the attack, saying the girl, who comes from a poor family, had been lured to a park in Seemapuri, where the perpetrator assaulted her. She was bleeding "incessantly" after the attack, Maliwal tweeted. "Cannot describe the pain the little girl was experiencing. Already malnourished, she has a long struggle ahead," she added. "We are going to support her in her legal fight to ensure death penalty to her culprits. Will file compensation application & shall make all efforts to rehabilitate her."A string of attacks on girls in the past year has sparked outrage in India. The latest rape conjures memories of a December 2012 attack that put India's rape crisis under a spotlight. In that incident, six males boarded a private bus, grabbed a 23-year-old woman, incapacitated a man with whom she had gone to the movies andproceeded to take turns raping the womanwhile beating her with an iron rod. She died of organ failure after being transported to Singapore for further treatment.India's problem with rape: Do women feel safe? Four men were sentenced to hang, one committed suicide in prison in 2013 and a juvenile attacker was sentenced to three years in juvenile detention. In April,India introduced a temporary lawthat makes raping a minor or participating in a gang rape punishable by death.Kiren Rijiju, India's minister of state for home affairs, in an interview with CNN stopped short of saying India has a problem with sexual violence but acknowledged, "Whatever we have been doing is not enough. ... It's shameful for our whole society."In a country as vast as India "to control the crime rate, especially sexual offenses, it's a big challenge for all of us," he said.Rijiju said stiffer penalties and new measures to ensure speedy justice had been put in place -- but that the country needed to focus on how to prevent such attacks in the first place. "Even one incident of the brutal case of rape is shameful for all of us," he said.The minister accepted that part of the problem was a lack of police personnel in different parts of the country, including Delhi. "Shortage of police personnel is everywhere in the country... Our forces in the police are not adequate as per the requirement," he said.More recently, the rape and killing of an 8-year-old Muslim girl stoked a furor and religious tensions after police found the girl's body in a forest in the isolated Himalayan district of Kathua. She had been kidnapped on January 12 while grazing horses.JUST WATCHEDThe women and girls of Delhi are fighting backReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe women and girls of Delhi are fighting back 02:03The girl wasdrugged, gang-raped and strangledbefore her body was dumped in the forest five days later, police said. Three police officers and a former government official were among the eight Hindu men arrested in the attack.Police in May announced they had arrested a primary suspect in the gang rape and burning death of a 16-year-old girl in the northeastern state of Jharkhand. The man arrested was one of 20 accused in the attack. The girl's family sought justice from a village council, which ordered the men to do situps and pay a 50,000-rupee ($750) fine. The order enraged the accused rapists, who then assaulted the victim's parents and set their house on fire,killing the girl inside, said Ashok Ram, the officer in charge of the local police station.Days later, a manraped a 17-year-old in her relative's homein Jharkhand state before setting her ablaze and fleeing, police said.Supporters of President of the Indian National Congress Party Rahul Gandhi hold placards in reaction to the recent rape cases in India during a rally in New Delhi on April 29, 2018.In another shocking case, an 11-year-old girl in Chennai was drugged and gang-raped in July by 17 men, ranging in age from their 20s to their 60s, who worked in the building where she lived, according to police. Other recent alleged victims include a 15-year-old in Bihar state who told police in July she was repeatedly rapedby a principal, two teachers and 16 boys over the course of six months; and a 17-year-old girl who in April accused an Uttar Pradesh legislator of participating in her gang rapeover the course of nine days in June 2017.JUST WATCHED11-year-old girl raped by 17 men this year, police sayReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCH11-year-old girl raped by 17 men this year, police say 01:27In the latter case, the girl's father was fatally assaulted the day after she attempted to set herself on fire in front of the home of an Uttar Pradesh official. Passersby stopped her. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 39,000 rapes in India in 2016 -- a rate of roughly one rape every 13.5 minutes. The total marked a 12% increase from the previous year.

"The first wife...hence hatched a conspiracy to eliminate her step daughter," it added.India's ruling party to face no-confidence vote, amid rise in mob violence The girl's body was found near the town of Uri on September 2, in woods not far from her house, the statement added. She was reported missing by her father on August 23. In April, the separate gangrape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir inflamed religious tensions and sparked widespread protests, in a case that is threatening to further destabilize an already restive region.The case was one of aseries of brutal rape cases in Indiaearlier this year shocked the country to its core, placing the issue of sexual violence firmly back on the national agenda.The incidents, including two alleged unrelated attacks on girls aged 16 and eight, gave rise to protests comparable to the rallies that followed the highly-publicized gang rape of a female college student in Delhi in 2012.In July, it emerged thatan 11-year-old girl from Chennai was rapedby 17 men who worked in the building she lived in.In June,five female anti-trafficking activists were gang raped in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said Friday, the same region where two teens were raped and then set on fire the previous month.In July, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faced a no-confidence vote in Parliament, brought about, in part, by the record number of rape cases. Almost 39,000 women and children were reported to have been raped in 2016, according to the most recent figures from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). That's more than 100 a day, or one every 15 minutes.The BJP remained untroubled by the parliamentary motion.

Repeated attempts to obtain details of the complaint from the Mumbai police have been unsuccessful, but Kapadia confirmed the offenses currently under investigation. Manoj Kumar Sharma, additional commissioner of the Mumbai police, confirmed their accuracy in a text message to CNN.Nath has denied the allegations. He filed a defamation suit last month and requested a gag order on Nanda. The judge dismissed the request for a gag order, but the defamation suit is in court. Nath's legal representatives were not immediately available for comment. JUST WATCHEDThe women and girls of Delhi are fighting backReplayMore Videos ...MUST WATCHThe women and girls of Delhi are fighting back 02:03The current police case follows a stream of allegations made by women across India's film, media and corporate worlds over the past three months. In the most high-profile resignation, senior cabinet minister MJ Akbar resigned last month after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment during his career as a journalist and author. He has denied the allegations.Akbar has also filed a defamation suit against one of his accusers in a Delhi court.

Supporters of former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attend a rally after his testimony to Federal Judge Sergio Moro in Curitiba, Brazil September 13, 2017. REUTERS/Paulo WhitakerBRASILIA (Reuters) - Former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva extended his lead in the run-up to the 2018 presidential election despite a corruption conviction that could bar him from running, a poll showed on Saturday. The Datafolha survey published in the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper showed Lula winning at least 35 percent support from those polled in a first-round vote, up from about 30 percent in a June poll. Two potential competitors, former environment minister Marina Silva and right-wing congressman Jair Bolsonaro, trailed with 13 percent to 17 percent of voting intentions. Lula would beat all potential contenders in a runoff vote, the poll said, expect in an unlikely contest against Sergio Moro, the judge who convicted him of corruption in July. Moro has repeatedly denied being a candidate. Millions of Brazilians were lifted from poverty during Lula’s 2003-2010 presidency. Many detractors blame him for a political graft that flourished under the Workers’ Party, calling his bribery conviction the end to his political career. Lula may not be eligible to run if his conviction is upheld by a higher court. Datafolha showed 26 percent of voters would vote for a candidate endorsed by Lula in such a scenario. Sao Paulo state governor Geraldo Alckmin and Sao Paulo city mayor Joao Doria, both from the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), had 8 percent of voting intentions each. Lula was found guilty last month and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison for accepting 3.7 million reais worth of bribes from engineering firm OAS, the amount of money prosecutors said the company spent refurbishing a beach apartment for Lula in return for his help winning contracts with state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro. He also faces other graft charges. Writing by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Bill TrottOur Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Forty people have died and hundreds are still missing in California after six days of wildfires that have devastated swathes of countryside and destroyed thousands of homes.California's governor said it was "one of the greatest tragedies" the state had ever faced.More than 10,000 firefighters are battling 16 remaining blazes.Winds of up to 70 km/h (45mph) brought them to new towns, forcing many more people to evacuate.One of the worst-affected areas is the city of Santa Rosa, in the Sonoma wine region, where 3,000 people were evacuated on Saturday. "The devastation is just unbelievable," Governor Jerry Brown said on a visit to the city."It is a horror that no one could have imagined."It is the most lethal outbreak of wildfires in the state's history. More than 100,000 people have been displaced. and whole neighbourhoods have been reduced to ash. Wineries count cost of wildfires disaster The prisoners fighting wildfires in California How wildfires start - and how to stop them Firefighters had made some headway on Friday, clearing dry vegetation and other combustible fuel around populated areas on the fires' southern flank.But the return of strong winds combined with high temperatures and dry air spread the fires further. The huge fires have sent smoke and ash over San Francisco, about 50 miles away, and over some towns and cities even further south.At least 13 Napa Valley wineries have been destroyed, a trade group said, and the owner of a winery in Santa Rosa told the BBC that the fires had destroyed millions of dollars worth of wine.

Citing Republican obstruction, Democrats in 2013 changed Senate practices to end the 60-vote threshold for taking up judicial nominations, essentially allowing them to confirm judges on a simple majority vote. Earlier this year, Mr. McConnell led Republicans in taking that change one step further, eliminating the 60-vote threshold on Supreme Court nominees, culminating in the confirmation of Justice Neil M. Gorsuch.But the blue slip practice — which is not a Senate rule but the prerogative of the Judiciary Committee chairman — remained in place. Because Democrats abided by it during Barack Obama’s presidency and Republicans refused to sign off on many of his nominees, his tenure ended with a large number of court openings that the Trump White House can now fill if it can overcome Democratic objections.At the moment, there are 144 federal court vacancies, including 21 on the appeals courts and 115 at the district court level. Besides Justice Gorsuch, Mr. Trump has won the confirmation of three appeals court judges and two district judges. Forty-five nominations are pending — 11 for the appeals courts, and 34 at the district level.A few of those nominations have already run into what is known in the Senate as blue slip trouble, including that of David R. Stras, a conservative favorite from Minnesota nominated by Mr. Trump in May to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota and a member of the Judiciary Committee, earlier this month announced that he would not return his blue slip for Mr. Stras, citing a fear that he was too much in the mold of Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.At the same time, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, both Democrats, announced that they would not return a blue slip for Ryan Bounds, newly nominated to a seat on the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, because the White House had failed to engage in an existing judicial recommendation process in the state. Under the existing system, the decisions by the senators could permanently derail those nominees.Equally worrisome to Republicans is the fact that many of the other appeals court openings are in states represented by either one or two Democrats, potentially giving them significant sway over multiple nominees despite their minority status.

The election of South Korea’s Kim Jong-yang as president of Interpol after months of scandal will likely see the organisation return to its core mission, as delegates chose a career cop over Kremlin insider Alexander Prokopchuk.While the role is largely ceremonial and day-to-day operations are handled by the general secretary, Kim will be tasked with salvaging the organisation’s reputation after the sudden departure of the previous president, Meng Hongwei of China, who was detained over allegations of corruption. Meng’s wife, Grace Meng, insists he is innocent, and says the charges are driven by a vendetta at his security ministry that has cast a spotlight on China’s authoritarian system.Kim joined the police in 1992, rising to become the chief of police in Gyeonggi province, the most populous in South Korea, before retiring in 2015 to become a vice-president at Interpol.“He has a reputation for tenacity, and a lot of people in Korea have likened him to a bulldozer: whatever he wants to do, he will get it done,” said Lee Chang-Hoon, a professor in the department of police administration at Hannam University in Daejeon. “He’ll likely push for more cooperation between agencies on investigations and focus particularly on transnational cybercrimes.”His election represents a high-profile win for a government program known as the “K-cop wave”, with South Korean officials looking to mimic the global popularity of K-pop music, this time with policing tactics.The program was established in 2015 and has trained officers from dozens of countries, with a focus on east Asian nations with large Korean populations. It has seen the establishment of several dedicated desks in countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam, and also pushed Korean policing products on the international market.South Korea’s police have a chequered past. During years of dictatorship, they were feared as instruments of the regime and helped crush pro-democracy protests in the southern city of Gwangju in 1980 in which hundreds died. In recent years the police have faced criticism over the perception they do not take crimes against women seriously. Topics International criminal justice South Korea Police Asia Pacific explainers

Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic presidential candidate and former Texas representative in the US Houses, was asked by the CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday about Donald Trump:“Do you think President Trump is a white nationalist?”“The things that he has said, both as a candidate and then as president of the United States, this cannot be open for debate. You, as well as I, have a responsibility call that out, to make sure that the American people understand what is being done in their name by the person who holds the highest position of public trust in this land.“He does not even pretend to respect our differences or to understand that we are all created equal.“He is saying that some people are inherently defective or dangerous – reminiscent of something you might hear in the Third Reich, not something that you expect in the United States of America – based on their religion, based on their sexual orientation, based on their immigration status, based on the countries that they come from. Calling those in Africa shithole nations and saying that he’d like to have more immigration from Nordic countries, the whitest place on planet Earth today. Again, let’s be very clear about what is causing this and who the president is.“He is an open, avowed racist and is encouraging more racism in this country.”And on Saturday night O’Rourke was asked if Donald Trump was at all responsible for yesterday’s shooting in El Paso, Texas. This was his reply:“We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you’ve had a president who’s called Mexicans ‘rapists’ and ‘criminals’, though Mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than those born here in the country.“He has tried to make us afraid of them, to some real effect and consequence. Attempting to ban all Muslims from this country. The day that he signed that executive order the mosque in Victoria, Texas, was burned to the ground.“Those chants that we heard in Greenville, North Carolina – ‘send her back’, talking about our fellow American citizens elected to represent their constituents in the Congress, who happen to be women of color.“He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country, and it does not just offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.” Topics Beto O'Rourke Gun crime El Paso El Paso shooting Texas Donald Trump Race news

A teenager who alleged she had been raped by a ruling party official in India is critically injured in hospital after a car crash.Two female relatives were killed in the crash, which occurred on Sunday when a truck collided with their car in Uttar Pradesh. Her lawyer was also badly injured.Police said the collision appeared to have been an accident, but that they were investigating claims it may have been an attempt to silence the girl.“We are analysing all the aspects, we are looking into call details and have recorded statements of eyewitnesses,” said the state’s police chief, OP Singh.The girl alleged she was raped by Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) lawmaker, in June 2017 after going to his house looking for a job. Her family said that for months the police were reluctant to register a complaint.Last year, the girl doused herself in kerosene and attempted to self-immolate in protest against the alleged unwillingness of police to properly investigate her claims. A day later her father died in police custody after he was admitted to hospital complaining of abdominal pain. The family claimed he had been beaten by Sengar, his brother Atul Singh Sengar and a group of supporters.Uttar Pradesh, home to 200 million people, is among the country’s poorest states and has a reputation for lawlessness.The case, which provoked protests across India, was handed over to federal investigators who arrested Sengar last year. He has been in custody since and denies the allegations.The girl’s mother said her family had been threatened and alleged the crash was an attempt to silence her daughter. “It was not an accident but a conspiracy to eliminate all of us,” she told the Press Trust of India news agency. “The son of a co-accused in the case, Shahi Singh, and another youth of the village had threatened us. They said that they will deal with us.”Priyanka Gandhi, a leader of the opposition Congress party, said the accident was shocking and questioned why Sengar was still a member of the BJP.The National Commission for Women said it was seriously concerned by the incident and has called for a “free, fair and speedy investigation”.Singh, the state’s police chief, said the truck was speeding, but that the crash “appears to be purely a road accident”. He declined further comment while an investigation went ahead.Images of the truck published in Indian newspapers showed that its number plates had been painted over.Nearly 40,000 rape cases are reported every year, according to official figures, though campaigners say the real number is likely to be far higher. In 2017, a report by Human Rights Watch warned that survivors of rape often suffer humiliation at police stations and hospitals, that police are often unwilling to register their complaints and that victims and witnesses receive little protection.Agence France-Presse contributed to this report Topics India South and Central Asia

India’s ruling party has expelled an official accused of rape, days after a deadly car crash left his alleged victim in critical condition.Investigators are examining possible links between Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) lawmaker, who was accused of raping a teenage girl, and the collision that occurred on Sunday.Two of the girl’s relatives were killed when a truck collided with their vehicle. The girl’s lawyer was also seriously injured. Images from the scene, broadcast on Indian media, showed that the truck’s number plates had been painted over.The authorities in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s poorest states, have been accused of failing to protect the girl or fairly investigate claims made against the powerful official.The BJP has also faced increasing criticism for allowing Singh Sengar to remain in the party, despite being charged under child protection laws last year. Officials said he had previously been suspended, but did not specify when this action was taken.The girl alleged she was raped by Singh Sengar in June 2017 after going to his house looking for a job. For months the police refused to register a complaint, according to the family.In protest at their lack of action, the girl travelled to Lucknow, the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, doused herself in paraffin and attempted to self-immolate. A day later, her father died in police custody. The family claimed he had been beaten by Singh Sengar and his brother.After public outrage, Singh Sengar was arrested last year and has remained in custody. He has denied the allegation of rape and any involvement in the car crash.The girl’s mother said the family had continued to receive constant threats and described Sunday’s collision as “a conspiracy to eliminate all of us”. The police initially said it appeared to be an accident, but federal investigators later said it may have been murder.On Wednesday, the supreme court transferred all cases linked to the alleged rape to Delhi, a damning indictment of the justice system in Uttar Pradesh, which has a reputation for lawlessness.The chief justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, ruled that the country’s Central Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the crash, must complete its inquiry in seven days, and the rape case in 45 days, according to reports.He also said compensation should be paid to the girl, and that she could be moved to Delhi for treatment, if the family wished. She remains unconscious and in critical condition with a head injury and multiple leg fractures.The case has caused outrage across India, with many arguing that justice systems offer little protection to vulnerable people who accuse the powerful. It has also prompted warnings about the handling of rape allegations, of which there are nearly 40,000 reported each year.Campaigners say that while Indian laws against sexual assault have improved in recent years – prompted by a 2012 Delhi gang rape which became a catalyst for reform – victims still suffer humiliation when reporting and officials are often reluctant to register complaints. Topics India South and Central Asia news

MYSURU, India — The Supreme Court of India has intervened in the case of a regional lawmaker suspected of trying to kill a woman who accused him of rape, ordering police protection for the woman and moving the rape trial out of the state where he wields political power.The lawmaker, Kuldeep Singh Sengar, has been jailed since last year on charges of rape and kidnapping. He is accused of attacking the woman in 2017, when she was 17, after luring her to his home with the promise of a job interview.The police now suspect him of arranging, from behind bars, a car crash on Sunday that left the woman in critical condition and killed two aunts who were in the car with her when a truck struck it head-on.ImageKuldeep Singh Sengar, a politician in the state of Uttar Pradesh, has been jailed since last year on charges of rape and kidnapping. CreditDeepak Gupta/Hindustan Times, via Getty ImagesThe woman has said that Mr. Sengar, a political boss in the state of Uttar Pradesh, repeatedly threatened to kill members of her family if they did not stay quiet about the rape allegations. Her father was beaten to death last year after speaking out about the case.The case, in all its twists and troubling turns, has set off a wave of national dismay in India reminiscent of the outrage that followed the gang-rape and murder of a woman on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.Lawmakers have stormed out of Parliament. Television news programs have been filled with pundits shouting at each other. And countless Indians have been shocked and demoralized by the possibility that a lawmaker would be so bold as to commit such crimes.Mr. Sengar, who is believed to be in his early 50s, has denied raping the woman, and he could not be reached for comment about the more recent accusations. The driver of the truck in the Sunday collision is also under investigation, as are more than 20 other people, according to the police.ImageThe car the young woman was in on Sunday. It was struck head-on by a truck; two of her aunts were killed.CreditDanish Siddiqui/ReutersMr. Sengar, who until this week was a member of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, had been serving a fourth term in the state assembly for Uttar Pradesh when he was jailed. He still counts many supporters, especially in his hometown, Unnao.On Friday, the Supreme Court held a hearing on the young woman’s medical condition, offering to help her family move her from a hospital in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to New Delhi. Family members said they wanted to wait until her condition improved.“She is still on a ventilator and still unconscious,” said Swati Maliwal, chairwoman of the Delhi Commission for Women, who has visited the woman in the hospital. “She is in a life-threatening situation. She is extremely critical.”On Thursday, the Supreme Court — widely seen as a progressive counterweight to India’s often rough-and-tumble politics — ordered that all trials connected to Mr. Sengar’s rape case be moved out of Uttar Pradesh, where he and his family remain influential, to New Delhi.ImageA police station in Unnao, Mr. Sengar’s hometown.CreditDanish Siddiqui/ReutersThe court also ordered federal police officers to protect the young woman and her lawyer, who was also seriously injured in the collision. It said that the rape trial must be completed within 45 days, and that federal investigators must conclude their inquiry into the truck crash within the next week. The court has also ordered Indian news outlets not to report the woman’s name.Beyond being named as a suspect in the Sunday collision, Mr. Sengar is also suspected of being part of a criminal conspiracy that led to the beating death of the young woman’s father last year. The police say Mr. Sengar’s brother carried it out.Suraj Hegde, a spokesman for the Indian National Congress, an opposition party, has accused Mr. Sengar and his allies in the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to subvert “the whole judicial system.” He called them a “new syndicated organization” and said that if the courts had moved faster to hear the woman’s case, “so many deaths would not have happened.”Top officials of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, suspended Mr. Sengar last year but had been reluctant to expel him. On Thursday, however, they did exactly that.“The party does not want to have any type of association with him,” said Himanshu Dubey, a party spokesman.

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has expelled one of its lawmakers after a car crash in which a woman who had accused him of rape was injured.The BJP acted amid outrage over the time taken to expel Kuldeep Sengar, who is in jail awaiting trial and denies the rape accusation. In the crash in Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday, two of the woman's aunts died and her lawyer was also injured. Police are investigating any connection between Mr Sengar and the car crash. The mother of the alleged victim said Mr Sengar's expulsion was "good news at last".She told the BBC her family had been "living in fear" since her daughter, now 19, accused Mr Sengar of raping her in 2017. "My husband died. Kuldeep will eventually meet his family members, his children, wife and everyone else. But for us, our family members are gone forever, they won't come back from the dead… we will never be able to see them," she said.Her daughter, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was travelling with her lawyer and relatives when their car was hit by a lorry on a state highway in Rae Bareli district.She had alleged that after she approached Mr Sengar for a job in June 2017, she was kidnapped and raped for more than a week by him and others. India murder probe over fatal crash Questions over India teen rape victim's car crash Mr Sengar was charged under India's stringent child protection laws, since the woman was a minor at the time.Her mother has alleged that the crash was not an accident.State police have opened a murder investigation against Mr Sengar on the basis of a complaint filed by the family. His lawyer, Awadhesh Singh, told Reuters news agency the car crash was "just an accident".The BJP came in for sharp criticism over the fact that Mr Sengar had remained in the party despite the serious allegations against him. In response, the party said it had suspended him "long ago" but did not give details of when.Meanwhile, the Supreme Court took up the case suo moto (without a formal complaint from any party) on Thursday. The move followed reports that the woman and her family had written to the chief justice for help weeks earlier, citing intimidation by Mr Sengar's supporters. The court demanded a status report into the proceedings against Mr Sengar and awarded compensation of 2.5mn rupees ($36,180; £29,877) to the woman's family. It also asked that the case against Mr Sengar be moved from Uttar Pradesh to the capital Delhi and stipulated that it must be heard within 45 days. The case had not even been listed for trial. The incident has caused massive outrage across India, with many calling it an example of the "lawlessness" of Uttar Pradesh and how hard it is to take on people in positions of power across the country. Three officers charged with protecting the alleged victim have also been suspended.

Police in India have opened a murder investigation against a ruling party lawmaker after a fatal crash involving a woman who had accused him of rape.The woman was seriously injured in the crash in Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday. Two of her aunts were killed and her lawyer was seriously injured. Her family and opposition MPs have alleged the crash was a deliberate attempt on her life. BJP lawmaker Kuldeep Sengar is in jail awaiting trial charged with raping her. He was charged under India's stringent child protection laws, since the teenager was a minor in 2017, when she claims he attacked her. But he has consistently denied the allegations.Mr Sengar's lawyer, Awadhesh Singh, told Reuters that Sunday's crash was "just an accident" and that the allegations were intended to politically damage his client. On Monday night, activists held a protest in the capital, Delhi, to show solidarity to the woman, who remains in a critical condition in hospital. The woman, now 19 and who cannot legally be named, was travelling with her lawyer and two relatives when their car was hit by a lorry on a state highway in Rae Bareli district.Local police officer Rakesh Singh told BBC Hindi at the time that the truck driver and owner of the vehicle had been arrested and taken in for questioning. Some reports suggested the vehicle's registration plate was smeared with black paint.Police initially said they were treating it as an accident. But late on Monday, following a complaint by the woman's family, police formally opened an investigation into Mr Sengar, his brother and more than two dozen other people, alleging murder, attempted murder conspiracy and intimidation.Following pressure from opposition parties, police have agreed to hand the case over to federal investigators who are also probing the rape allegations. The woman's mother has alleged foul play, saying that the collision was not an accident and has demanded justice.Opposition parties in the state called for a federal investigation into the incident, saying the circumstances of the crash are "suspicious". The leader of the state's main opposition Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, was quoted by Hindustan Times newspaper as saying the incident "could be a murder attempt".The woman alleges that she had approached Mr Sengar for a job in June 2017 - and she was kidnapped and raped for more than a week by him and others. She said she registered a police complaint, but police initially did not name Mr Sengar as one of the accused. The police did register a case against him months later, but the woman alleges that they did not proceed with the investigation. She and her family allege that on 3 April 2018, the woman's father was assaulted by Atul Sengar and his supporters. The police charged five men for assault but they also arrested her father on the charge of illegally possessing firearms. He died a day later in prison. On 8 April, the woman attempted to set herself on fire outside Mr Adityanath's home, alleging that she had been repeatedly thwarted in her pursuit of justice. India's federal investigation agency then took over the case and arrested Atul Sengar and 10 others on charges of murder. The case is still ongoing. Atul Sengar has not responded to the charges.On 13 April, the high court in Uttar Pradesh ordered the arrest of Kuldeep Sengar, while criticising Mr Adityanath's government and state police for not doing enough to investigate the charges and protect the victim or her family.The court said the facts of the case "clearly reflect that the accused has been using his office and influence with impunity to tamper [with] evidence and witnesses and further has exercised undue influence with the law and order machinery to manipulate and coerce the family members of the victim and brutally assaulted her father."The federal investigation agency charged Kuldeep Sengar with rape and arrested him later that day.

A teenager who accused a ruling party lawmaker of rape in 2017 has been seriously injured in a road accident in India's northern Uttar Pradesh state. The 19-year-old was travelling with her lawyer and two relatives when their car was hit by a lorry on a state highway. The two female relatives of the girl have died and her lawyer is also in hospital with serious injuries. The girl's mother has alleged foul play, saying that the collision was not an accident and demanding justice.The family want police to open a murder investigation against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Kuldeep Singh Sengar, who is accused of raping the teenager. Police this afternoon, registered a complaint naming him and 10 others in connection with Sunday's incident. Mr Sengar has been in custody for more than a year on accusations of raping the teenager. He denies the charges.He has been charged under India's stringent child protection laws since the teenager was a minor when she was attacked.Local police officer Rakesh Singh told BBC Hindi that the truck driver and owner of the vehicle have been arrested and taken in for questioning. Some reports suggest the vehicle's registration plate was smeared with black paint.Police told NDTV that while they were still investigating the matter, at the moment they were treating it as an accident. But opposition parties in the state have called for a federal investigation into the incident, saying the circumstances of the crash are "suspicious".The leader of the state's main opposition Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, was quoted by Hindustan Times newspaper as saying the incident "could be a murder attempt". Why India's rape crisis shows no signs of abating Explaining India's new anti-rape laws The victim was on the way to a prison to meet her uncle - who is lodged there in connection with a different case - when the crash happened in Rae Bareli district on Sunday afternoon.Police said the girl and her family had been provided with security, but "our information suggests the security wasn't with them" on Sunday."It seems they refused it. A probe has been ordered," police official MP Verma told NDTV.In April 2018, the girl attempted to set herself on fire outside the residence of state chief minister Yogi Adityanath, alleging that Mr Sengar had kidnapped and raped her. A day later, her father died in prison. He had been allegedly assaulted by the lawmaker's brother, Atul Sengar, and his supporters a week before. India's federal investigation agency took over the case last year and arrested Atul Sengar and 10 others on charges of murder.

Two people have been arrested in India's Bihar state after a group of men shaved the heads of two women as "punishment" for resisting rape.The group, which included a local official, ambushed the mother and daughter in their home with the intent of raping them, police said.When the women resisted, they assaulted them, shaved their heads and paraded them through the village.Police say they are searching for five others involved in the incident."We were beaten with sticks very badly. I have injuries all over my body and my daughter also has some injuries," the mother told the ANI news agency. The women also said that their heads were shaved in front of the entire village. Geeta Pandey, BBC News, DelhiThe attempted rape is a sexual crime, but the subsequent assault, tonsuring the women's heads and parading them through the village is an assertion of male power in a community, deeply entrenched in patriarchy. What is most worrisome is that the assaulting mob was led by a government official - an elected representative whose job is to look after the welfare of his people, not attack them.The audacity of the crime shows how in parts of India there's no fear of law. To begin with, poor marginalised groups find it hard to even convince the police to lodge complaints. Then their cases are shoddily investigated and an overburdened slow-paced judicial system mean the powerful often get away with blue murder.Public anger and outrage, that occurs every time a crime of this nature occurs, is short lived. What is needed is much more consistent action from the authorities, bringing swift justice to the victims of such crimes and restoring the rule of law in remote rural areas of the country."Some men entered the victims' home and tried to molest the daughter," a police officer told local media, adding that her mother helped her fight off the men. India woman en route to police set on fire by 'molesters' Why India's rape crisis shows no signs of abating The state's women commission has also condemned the incident, saying that "further action" will be taken.This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in the state. In April, a teenage girl was attacked with acid for resisting an attempted gang rape. And a few months back, a woman in Bihar was assaulted, stripped and paraded naked through the village market.Public outrage over sexual violence in India rose dramatically after the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus.The issue became a political flashpoint again in 2018, after a string of high-profile attacks against children. However incidents of rape and violence against women continue to be reported from across the country.

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