Anxious parents of the more than 120,000 Indian students in Australia are asking for clear answers to certain questions. A clear message needs to be sent back to them, writes Sujatha Singh, India's high commissioner to Australia.
A 23-year-old paramedic student, who came to be known as Nirbhaya, was gang-raped on the intervening night of December 16-17, 2012 inside a running bus in south Delhi by six persons and severely assaulted before being thrown out on the road.
"There is absolutely no pressure on me. I am common man and I do not represent anyone. The media is trying to portray me as a goon. I am an Indian and if praising Mother India and saying 'Vande Matram' makes me a goon then so be it. Yes there are allegations against me, but I am sure I will be vindicated," Chauhan told ANI.
However, it did not mention the period of leave.
Against the backdrop of attacks on Indians in Australia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said the security of Indian students and workers abroad is a top priority of the government.
Minister of State for HRD Shashi Tharoor said in Rajya Sabha that in January his ministry wrote to education secretaries of states suggesting inclusion of "training in self-defence" in physical education classes for girl students.
The Centre and the Delhi government challenged the trial court's January 31 order staying 'till further orders' the execution of all the four convicts in the case. The parents of the victim urged the court to expeditiously decide the Centre's plea and were assured by the judge that the order would be passed at the earliest.
One of Australia's most prominent Indian-born businessmen has astonishingly said that the bashed students from his homeland provoked the assaults on themselves by being drunk and "making merry."
The assault on the daughter of an MLA and her friend at Mangalore has taken a new turn with the Democratic Youth Federation of India claiming responsibility behind the incident.
The ABVP on Friday demanded a fresh inquiry and sought an FIR against ASA and SFI leaders claiming that certain lines of Rohith's suicide note implicating them were struck off.
A Juvenile Justice Board is likely to pronounce its verdict on Thursday against the juvenile accused for his alleged involvement in the December 16 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student.
'So why didn't the police make it very clear that this is the line of investigation, this is what we are doing.' 'Nobody knows what kind of report was done.' 'Was she checked for (sexual assault)?'
"Even the woman in her statement to police did not mention about rape but talked about 'marpeet' (beating) only," the ADG said.
Maintaining that Australia was taking all steps to the 'best of its ability' to ensure the safety of Indian students there, Australian High Commissioner Peter Verghese on Wednesday said it was not possible to totally abolish crime and disagreed that majority of recent assaults on Indians were 'racially' motivated. He also said the perception (of lack of security) may be one of the factors leading to the decline in the number of Indian students in the current year.
A Delhi court on Thursday sent Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union President Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested in a sedition case, to one day police custody after the prosecution said that he was needed to be confronted with the other two arrested JNU students Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya.
Taking exception to attack on Kanhaiya Kumar by some lawyers inside the Patiala House court complex, the parents of the JNUSU president refused to take police protection.
A five-year-old girl brutally raped and assaulted allegedly by a neighbour while being held captive and starved for two days is battling for life after she contracted infection from foreign objects inserted in her body.
Rediff Labs analysed Kerala state's number of crime against women under different crime heads such as rape, kidnapping, assault to outrage her modesty, dowry deaths, immoral traffic for the last 10 years.
A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan is expected to deliver its judgment on the pleas of Mukesh, 29, Pawan Gupta, 22, and Vinay Sharma, 23.
We want a change in Bengal again -- but this time a change in the real sense of the term, writes Indrani Roy in an open letter to the West Bengal chief minister
The accused had allegedly made comments to the duo before one of the student was pushed to the ground and kicked at about 10.20 pm (local time) last night in central Melbourne.
Kiran Bedi, retired police officer and now a prominent social activist, feels that the Delhi Police has become more of a 'fire fighting force'.
Eighteen days after the horrific gangrape of a 23-year-old paramedical student, the Delhi police on Thursday filed its chargesheet in a court in Delhi against five men arrested in the case, slapping on them murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges.
The Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met on Saturday evening amid strong demands for swift action against the perpetrators of the horrific gangrape and assault on the 23-year-old paramedic student.
Swaraj said the Centre was taking immediate action and that UP CM Yogi Adityanath had assured her of a fair and impartial investigation.
Trump said it is 'very, very important' to have offensive capability, as well as defensive capability that's within the schools.
With incidents of attacks on Indians in Australia on the rise, many community members feel the root cause of such assaults is not race but the students' financial conditions that force them to be out at night for odd jobs to meet high cost of living in Australia.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi met family members of the Delhi gangrape victim on Saturday evening, a day after government brought an ordinance providing for tough punishment to rapists.
The owner of a well-known coaching class was arrested on Thursday for allegedly molesting a 17-year-old female student at his Dadar office in central Mumbai, the police said.
"Collective conscience of the society shaken. In our society, minor girls are worshipped as goddess," the POCSO court said.
It won't be easy to fight entrenched patriarchy and male-chauvinist prejudice without an extensive campaign of social reform, says Praful Bidwai
Anger is mounting among Indian students in Australia in the wake of the recent assaults that left a youth from the community battling for life after being stabbed and another badly burnt following a petrol bomb attack.The Federation of Indian Student Association in Victoria said that they have been receiving non-stop calls to hold rallies and protest shows in Melbourne against the spate of attacks on Indian youths.
The local boys used to harass girls at a government residential school.
The eyewitness and male friend of the 23-year-old paramedical student, who was gangraped in a moving bus here on Sunday night, today recorded his statement before a Delhi court.
The cops' RTI reply does clear the air about the varsity chief's role on that eventful night. The letter, however, fails to explain how his 'unarmed police' resorted to merciless lathi-charge, video footage of which was broadcast by many television channels.
Jail officials said that after the death warrants were issued, the convicts were asked when they would like to meet their respective families for the last time, but none of them has responded yet. They are scheduled to be hanged on February 1.
When an accused gets attacked on the way to court, and again within the court premises, with no intervention by a judicial officer, which space is safe, asks Jyoti Punwani.
Observing that the law takes a stern view of crimes such as rape, the Bombay High Court upheld the conviction of 20 accused in the rape case of a 16-year-old school student who was allegedly drugged by her neighbour, sexually assaulted and forced into prostitution.
The Justice Usha Mehra Panel, which has been constituted to review responses to the December 16 gang rape case, will receive public opinions and suggestions till January 18.
Women's rights activists and political leaders -- cutting across party lines -- have voiced concern against the murder, which they believe was a first of its kind in the state for the sheer brutality of the crime.
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