In a shocking interview to British news channel BBC, Mukesh Singh, one of the men convicted and sentenced for brutally raping and murdering a 23-year-old in Delhi in 2012, has said that his victim was far more responsible for rape than those involved in ‘the accident’.
In the BBC interview, to be aired on Women’s Day on March 8, claims that his execution will make life more dangerous for future rape victims.
Singh says: ‘You can’t clap with one hand -- it takes two hands. A decent girl won't roam around at 9 o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”
Mukesh’s victim, a physiotherapy student, was raped and assaulted with an iron rod after she was tricked into boarding an unregistered private bus to go home after watching a movie with a male friend.
Her male companion was badly beaten up and could not come to her rescue while the assault was being carried out
The attack sparked widespread protests and a campaign by civil society groups for tougher laws to protect women against sexual violence.
One of the attackers was found dead in jail in March 2013. A juvenile member of the gang was sentenced to three years in a reform home. Four attackers, including Mukesh, were convicted and sentenced to death last year. The Supreme Court has stayed the death sentences, considering appeals filed by the four men.
Mukesh, who was 26 at the time of the attack, was driving the bus.
An unrepentant Mukesh told the BBC interviewer that the rape and beatings were to teach the girl and her friend a lesson that they should not have been out late at night.
He even criticised the victim for having fought back against her attackers, saying: “When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”
Image: Courtesy BBC
