An Indian woman was allegedly gang-raped in a school where she had been quarantined for a night by the police amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in a report by The Daily Mail.
The incident occurred in the desert state of Rajasthan when the victim, a daily wage earner, sought shelter at a police station after walking alone for miles and losing the way to her native village.
In the absence of a quarantine centre, local police housed her for the night in a school building, where she was allegedly raped by three men.
The three men have been arrested. This was disclosed by the deputy superintendent of police in the district, Sharma. According to him:
Three local men who raped the woman inside the school on April 23 have been arrested and sent to jail.
Also, the woman had been sent to a local quarantine facility to get tested for COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus.
The deputy superintendent further said that:
We don’t know how long she was on her own for, and who she came into contact with, and her test results are not yet known. He further explained that a junior police official had been suspended for negligence.
The nationwide lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month to contain the spread of the virus prompted tens of thousands of workers who lost their jobs in cities to walk for days in desperation to reach their homes in rural India.
Many of them are now in overcrowded quarantine centres and authorities are struggling to cope.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion, has reported 26,496 cases of COVID-19, and 824 deaths. Despite stringent laws, rape occurs every 20 minutes, on average, according to federal crime data.
Follow our socials Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google News.
