Acknowledging that women with disabilities experience greater discrimination, the Madras High Court refused to reduce punishment of 3 attempted rapists.
The court was hearing an appeal filed by the three accused who were convicted of attempted rape of a woman with a speaking and hearing disability.
The accused had sexually assaulted the woman in 2013.
In its denial of the appeal, the court weighed seriously the fact that the victim had disabilities and was taken advantage of because of this reality. The court agreed with the prosecutor’s declaration that if others had not intervened, the accused would have raped the victim.
Justice K Murali Shankar said that, despite harsher punishment of people who perform acts of violence against this most vulnerable population, the attitude of society towards women, especially women with disabilities, has not changed completely.
“Violence is something she is born with, from womb till grave,” Justice Shankar remarked as reported by The New Indian Express.
While two of the three accused men are stated to have cupped the victim’s mouth and held her down by her hands, the third accused lifted her clothing, purportedly in an attempt to rape her. Two boys tried to stop the accused, but after failing to do so, they ran and told the victim’s father of the impending attack. The accused men ran away after the father came to the scene of the crime.
