Husband arrested for throwing acid on wife after sending friends to gang rape her ‘because he lost a bet’
India saw a sharp increase in domestic violence during the coronavirus lockdown
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Your support makes all the difference.A gambler in India who bet his wife and lost then threw acid on her because she resisted his attempts to send her back to his friends, who had been gang-raping her as part of the deal, police said.
The incident took place in the northeastern state of Bihar and adds to the growing number of cases of domestic violence during the Covid-19 restrictions in India.
“The couple was married for about 10 years. Her husband was into gambling and he lost her in a bet in late October,” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a senior police official of Muzahidpur police station, told The Independent.
“After that, he would send her to the gamblers against her wishes, where the men would rape her. If she ever resisted the sexual exploitation, her husband would beat her and hold her hostage,” he said.
“On 2 November, when the 30-year-old woman opposed her husband’s attempts to again send her to the gamblers, he threw acid on her,” Mr Jha said.
The husband has been booked by the state police under various sections of Indian law, including acid attack, gang rape, domestic violence and wrongful confinement, and is currently in judicial custody. The couple cannot be named due to laws protecting the identity of victims of sexual crimes.
The police is yet to identify the other accused persons.
The Covid-19 lockdown period has resulted in a nearly twofold rise in gender-based violence, according to the National Commission for Women (NCW), which receives complaints of domestic violence from across India. The women’s commission recorded 587 domestic violence complaints between 23 March and 16 April, which was a 45 per cent increase from the previous 25 days between 27 February and 22 March.
This has been attributed to confinement with an abusive partner, financial worries due to the lockdown, and lack of access to alcohol.
An Oxfam India report found that though there was a spike during the initial period of the lockdown, there was an overall decrease in the complaints received during April, as restrictions slightly eased.
However, the gradual relaxation of the lockdown saw a surge in complaints in the subsequent months that Oxfam attributed to under-reporting. According to the latest available government data, Bihar ranked 14th among Indian states for domestic violence in 2019, with about 2,300 cases.
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