(HorizonPost.com) – The body of a young tribal girl who went missing while on her way to a wedding ceremony in the Indian village of Deori Tehsil on April 19 was found the following day in a nearby forest.
The 12-year-old was abducted by an unidentified individual on April 19 as she and her parents were traveling to the wedding of a relative. After a search, the girl’s body was found the next day in a forest nearby.
So far, no arrest has been made, prompting tribal groups to stage multiple demonstrations outside of the local magistrate’s office calling for the suspect to be quickly apprehended and put to death.
India’s rape epidemic has been in the spotlight since 2012 when a 23-year-old student was gang raped on a bus in New Delhi and killed. The brutality of the attack led to mass protests and prompted Indian lawmakers to impose stiffer penalties for rape and establish courts dedicated to hearing rape cases.
In 2013, India amended the rape law to criminalize voyeurism and stalking. It also changed the age required to be tried as an adult from 18 to 16.
Despite all that has been done to address the problem, the epidemic continues.
According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2022, the average number of rapes reported in India each day was nearly 90. A total of 31,516 rapes were reported to police that year, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.
Eleven men were arrested in 2022 after they gang-raped and tortured a Delhi woman before parading her through the streets. A 13-year-old girl who went to a police station to report that she was the victim of gang rape was allegedly raped by the police officer at the station.
In March, a Spanish tourist traveling across India with her husband was brutally gang raped while the two were camping in the Jharkhand state in the eastern part of the country.
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