An Indian man has been arrested for the alleged rape of an 86-year-old woman after he approached her while she was waiting for the milkman then lured her to an isolated field, according to a senior police official.
The woman was outside her house in a village in the Indian capital Delhi on Monday evening when she was allegedly approached by a 32-year-old man named Sonu, an additional deputy commissioner of Delhi police, R P Meena, said.
“The accused asked her to accompany him on his two-wheeler (vehicle) on the pretext that he had to ask for his money back from someone and that they would be sympathetic if he was accompanied by an old lady,” Meena told CNN Thursday.
Neighbors heard the woman screaming for help and called the police. The accused was caught at the scene and arrested for rape and voluntarily causing hurt, Meena said.
According to Meena, the woman did not know the accused and the police don’t believe that the crime was premeditated. The woman sustained minor injuries during the struggle and has been discharged from the hospital as she is in a stable condition, he added.
Under Indian law, rape carries a possible sentence of life imprisonment. The death sentence is also available for repeat rape offenders, gang rapists, or people convicted of raping a minor.
