December 16, 2012: In New Delhi, physiotherapy student Jyoti Singh and Awindra Pratap Pandey are kidnapped.
This was a genuine rape case, a truly shocking, and, thankfully, unique one. Initially the victims were not identified, but the girl became known as India’s Daughter. This was also used as the title of a BBC documentary about the case.
After leaving a cinema, Jyoti and Awindra boarded a bus, or a vehicle they thought was a bus. The driver, Mukesh Singh, and the five passengers were actually a pack of wolves in search of prey.
Awindra was beaten, and Jyoti was literally raped to death. After the outrage, they were thrown from the moving vehicle. Because her internal injuries were so great, Jyoti needed specialist treatment, and was eventually transferred to hospital in Singapore where she died on December 29. Her internal injuries are a matter of public record, so will not be described here.
The film India’s Daughter was banned by the Indian Government. Almost as shocking as the outrage itself was the attitude of Mukesh Singh who when interviewed in prison said basically the victim deserved it: she shouldn’t have been out that late at night, and she shouldn’t have fought back. Unbelievable.
All six of the gang were convicted; one being a juvenile was given the maximum sentence, an extraordinarily lenient three years. One committed suicide in prison; the others were finally executed at dawn on March 20, 2020 – around midnight March 19/20, London time. The cheering crowds outside the Delhi prison were somewhat reminiscent of those outside the Florida State Prison when Ted Bundy was executed in January 1989.
The rape and murder of India’s Daughter appears to have led to a sharp increase in the number of false rape allegations on the sub-continent. After consulting this database, the reader can judge that claim for himself.
Back To False Rape Timeline