bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

More than four dozen men have been arrested in India for the repeated sexual abuse of a teenager over years, police told AFP Wednesday.
The young victim is a Dalit, the lowest rung in the rigid Hindu caste system, who are disproportionately targeted for sexual violence in a country with high rates of crime against women.
The unnamed woman, now 18, said around 60 men sexually abused her in her southern home state of Kerala beginning from when she was just 13.
“Forty-nine people have been taken into custody,” Pathanamthitta district police official Nandakumar S told AFP.
The accused men were known to the woman and included neighbours and family friends.
Rajeev N, a lawyer who heads a local child welfare committee, told AFP that the woman’s parents were “unaware of their daughter’s nightmare”.
“The child is being kept away from the media and only police are visiting her to record her statements,” he added.


The Indian Express newspaper reported this week that one of the accused men blackmailed the woman with a video that he had recorded when they had “physical relations”.
After the threat, many of his friends sexually assaulted her.
A subsequent police investigation found that she had been gang-raped on at least five occasions, including once at a local hospital.
An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people, but many more are thought to go unreported.
A court in the eastern city of Kolkata is this week expected to deliver its verdict against a man accused of raping and murdering a 31-year-old doctor last year.
The discovery of her bloodied body at a state-run hospital in August last year stoked nationwide anger and protests at the chronic issue of violence against women.


‘Unwelcome news’: should India be worried about Sri Lanka and China’s growing cooperation?

In India, man who raped, killed doctor gets sentenced to life in prison

India’s ‘digital arrest’ scam leaves victims in financial ruin and fear: ‘I have lost sleep’

Can India bridge digital education divide to prepare its youth for tech-oriented workforce?

India

India’s police arrest 5 more men in ‘nightmare’ sexual abuse of teen

Indian women queue up to vote. An average of nearly 90 rapes a day were reported in 2022 in the country of 1.4 billion people, but many more are thought to go unreported. Photo: AFP

Anger over Indian corporate leader’s call for 7-day work week: ‘more dangerous than Covid’

Workers operate a machine at a manufacturing facility in Kanchipuram district in India. Photo: AFP

Co-founder of Infosys, Narayana Murthy, at a company event in Bengaluru in 2019. Photo: AFP

An employee at a company in New Delhi. An International Labour Organization report in 2024 ranked India among the top 10 countries with the longest work hours at an average of 46.7 hours per week. Photo: AFP

A man walks past the Nvidia logo at the company’s AI Summit in Mumbai, India, in October 2024. Photo: Reuters

India’s growing rift with Bangladesh echoes its Pakistan tensions

Hindu activists burn an effigy of Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of Bangladesh, in Amritsar, India, on December 27. Photo: AFP

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) shakes hand with his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina  in New Delhi last year, before her ousting. Photo: AP 

Indian border forces inspect a truck carrying supplies to Bangladesh at the India-Bangladesh border last year. Photo: AFP

Hindu activists burn a poster of Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus during a protest in Kolkata last month. Photo: EPA-EFE

India and European nations push for faster FTA launch ahead of Trump’s return

A container ship docked at a port in Vallarpadam, in the southern Indian city of Kochi. Photo: Reuters

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal speaking at the World Trade Organization gathering of ministers in Abu Dhabi last March. Photo: Reuters

People wave Romanian and European Union flags during a pro-European rally in Bucharest last December. Photo: AP

President-elect Donald Trump has said the US plans to impose higher tariffs on imports from around the world. Photo: AP

With eyes on China and India, Sri Lanka lifts ban on foreign research vessels

Chinese research ship Yuan Wang 5 arrives in Hambantota International Port in Sri Lanka in 2022. Photo: AP

India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar (left) meeting with his Sri Lankan counterpart Vijitha Herath in Colombo in October. Photo: AFP

Then-Sri Lankan Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena shaking hands with China’s President Xi Jinping before a meeting in Beijing. Photo: AFP

A container vessel offloading at the East Terminal of the Colombo port in Sri Lanka. Photo: AFP

News

Asia

South Asia

The unnamed woman, now 18, said around 60 men sexually abused her in her southern home state of Kerala beginning from when she was just 13


The unnamed woman, now 18, said around 60 men sexually abused her in her southern home state of Kerala beginning from when she was just 13.


Crime

Sexual harassment and assault

Human rights

Women and gender