A 19-year-old reportedly killed himself after he was beaten up and made to watch his girlfriend being gang-raped in front of him as he lay injured and bloodied on the ground. Unable to cope with the horrific incident, the teenager, named Sawan Sai from central India, took his own life the very next day.
According to The Times of India, the attack occurred in the Korba district of Chhattisgarh on 1 Sept, when Sawan and his 18-year-old girlfriend were returning home from a market.
The pair were cornered by two men, both 22, while they were passing through an deserted area near a school in the Bhelwa Tikra village. The men, who arrived in a motorbike, confiscated the teenagers’ cell phones and began threatening them, criticising the couple for walking around together in an isolated area after dark.
The men then assaulted Sawan. His girlfriend fled to seek help from the villagers but the men caught her and dragged her back to where Sawan lay bleeding, before raping her. The men fled after gang-raping the 18-year-old.
Sawan and his girlfriend collected themselves and went home but did not report the incident to the police. According to Indian publication Newsbytes, Sawan also discovered somehow that the assailants had told some villagers about their exploits.
Wracked with guilt, the traumatised 19-year-old boy took his own life on 2 Sept and was found hanged in his home.
Sawan’s family chose not to alert the police about their son’s suicide. Ten days later, on 12 Sept, Sawan’s girlfriend visited the police station in Katghora police and informed the police about the attack on 1 Sept and cited it as the cause of her boyfriend’s suicide.
Speaking to Times of India reporters, Police representative Sandeep Mittal said: “Both of them returned home somehow but Sawan apparently was soaked in distress after the incident. The investigation is underway. While the last rites rituals for 12 days continued in the deceased family, the girl went to Katghora police station and narrated the incident, quoting it as a reason for his suicide.”
Two suspects were arrested on 13 Sept, a day after Sawan’s girlfriend lodged the police report.