Anti-rape protesters in Delhi, India. Photograph by Nilanjana Roy
India’s top police chief has been forced to apologise after a comment he made in a press conference about rape sparked outrage across India.
Ranjit Sinha, director of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has come under fire after comparing betting to rape, saying:
“If you cannot enforce the ban on betting, it is like saying, ‘If you can’t prevent rape, you enjoy it”
He made the controversial comments during a press conference about illegal sports betting in India, and the need to legalise gambling, so that it would earn the state revenue.
Angry women and activists across the country have called for Sinha’s resignation, with Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India remarking:
“It is sickening that a man who is in charge of several rape investigations should use such an analogy…He should be prosecuted for degrading and insulting women.”
Sinha’s comments come at a time when rape is a hotly debated issue in Indian politics after the conviction last month of four men for a brutal gang rape which left a woman dead. In response to the outrage from this case, Indian politicians were pushed to create new laws with harsher punishments for the crime and a fast track court system for hearing such cases.
