An old incident from Rajasthan where a Dalit woman was gang raped while her husband was present is being shared as a recent incident on social media. BOOM found that the incident is from April 2019 when an 18-year-old woman was assaulted in Rajasthan's Alwar district.
A photo showing the woman standing with two men is being shared along with this claim. The caption reads, "A Dalit woman gang raped in front of her husband in Rajasthan, the accused made the video viral. How many agenda preachers expressed agony and anger? My religion says no matter who the woman is from where if she is wrong we should raise our voice."
(Original text in Hindi: "राजस्थान एक दलित महिला से उसके पति के सामने किया गया सामूहिक दुष्कर्म, आरोपियों ने वीडियो बनाकर किया वायरल। कितने एजेंडा प्रचारकों ने पीड़ा और क्रोध व्यक्त किया? मेरा धर्म कहता है महिला कोई भी हो कहीं की भी हो अगर उसके साथ ग़लत हो रहा है हमें आवाज़ उठानी चाहिए")
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the incident took place on April 26, 2019, in Thana Ghazi, a town in Alwar, Rajasthan.
A keyword search of the incident on Google in Hindi led us to a report published by Dalit Dastak on May 10, 2019. The feature image of the story carried visuals similar to the viral photo. According to the report, the woman was allegedly gang raped by five men who captured the incident on video and demanded Rs 9,000 from the survivor's family to erase it.
Taking a cue from this, we ran a search for more reports and found Jagran's article published on May 7. According to this report, the woman was travelling with her husband when five men on two bikes intercepted them and forcefully dragged the woman to a secluded area. They beat up her husband and tied him to a tree before allegedly assaulting her and taking videos of her.
After constant harassment from the accused, the woman filed an FIR on May 2, and named five people in her complaint-- Indraraj Gurjar, Ashok Gurjar, Chotelal Gurjar, Mangesh Gurjar, and Hansraj Gurjar. The woman's family alleged that the police did not take any action due to the general assembly elections at the time. This led to protests in the area after which the police arrested one of the accused, Indraraj Gurjar. SHO Sardar Singh of the Thana Ghazi police station was suspended due to inaction in the matter.
Later, an FIR was filed against Singh under sections of the IPC and the SC/ST Act. IAS Officer and Alwar SP Rajeev Pachar was also removed temporarily, before being given a clean chit in the matter.
In a statement to The Indian Express, the woman's husband said they approached the police on April 30, “The SP heard us and later officials of the Thana Ghazi police station went with us to the spot where the crime had taken place and conducted our medical examinations." He added, "The police, including officials of the Thana Ghazi police station told us that due to election work, they have less personnel and so asked us to wait till the elections got over."