An Indian woman who claims she was raped at gunpoint by two men says the investigating officer refused to arrest the pair until she had sex with him.
The 37-year-old woman, from northern Uttar Pradesh province, said she was left in fear of her life after police failed to detain Ameer Ahmad, 55, and Sattar Ahmad, 45, after she reported them for rape back in February.
She says her requests were repeatedly ignored by officer Jai Prakash Singh who instead questioned her on the lurid details of the alleged attack, before suggesting she ‘fulfill my desires’.
The disturbing case was reported by Times of India, which says it has recordings of Singh making his advances.
The case began back in February when the woman said Ameer and Satar offered her a lift home from a relative’s house, only to return and rape her later when they discovered she was home alone.
She reported the case to police, but says officers failed to file charges until she went to a local court to complain.
Even then, she said her attackers – who live in the same village – were left free to roam the streets, leaving her in fear of her life.
Despite making desperate pleas to Singh to jail the pair, he instead began messaging her phone asking to meet in private and propositioning her, she says.
When she complained about his behaviour, she claims he closed the case.
But Singh kept on harassing her, at which point she made secret recordings and took them to the police chief.
Speaking about the tapes, police superintendent Vipin Tada said: The voice in the audio clip doesn’t match with that of the [investigator]. But we will investigate her charges thoroughly.’
In 2015 alone, there were 34,000 reported cases of rape in India, though that number is likely to be far higher since many do not go to the police for fear they will not be believed, or will be shunned by their community.
Marital rape is also not considered a crime, further adding to the number of unreported cases. In 2014 there were around 14,000 reported cases of child rape.
The most infamous rape case in modern Indian history took place in New Delhi in 2012, when intern Jyoti Singh was brutally attacked on a bus by six men who – among other things – violated her with a steel pole.
She was taken to hospital but died almost two weeks later from internal injuries, sparking nationwide protests.