13 men arrested for gang-raping woman in eastern India

Police on Thursday arrested 13 men who gang-raped a 20- year old woman in India's eastern state of Bengal. Police said the incident happened in the Birbhum District of Bengal where the 13 accused gang-raped the woman following an order from a village council as a punishment for her falling in love with a man from a different religion. Narrating the details, the police said the village council head summoned the young woman along with a man whom she was seeing, adding, they were both tied to the tree and 25000 Indian rupees were demanded from them as penalty for having a relationship. As the woman could not pay the fine , the police said the village council ordered her gang rape by 13 men.Police further said they were investigating the case and more arrests were expected.The incident has sent shock waves in the entire country with the media demanding stern punishment to the accused in the chilling incident.Recently on January 15, a 51-year old Danish tourist was gang raped by more than six men in the Indian capital New Delhi.Following the rape attacks on foreign nationals, three countries including UK, Canada, and France have issued travel advisories for their women asking them to exercise caution when in India because of an increasing number of sex attacks on foreigners.In December 2012, the national capital Delhi and the whole of India went into a state of shock when a 23-year-old female was beaten and gang raped in a bus in which she was travelling with her male companion.Rapes are prevalent in India. According to official records a rape is reported every 20 minutes in India. National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB), reported there were 228,650 reported crimes committed against women in 2011, an increase of seven percent from 2010.