Delhi Man Held For Luring Uzbek Woman, Confining & Raping Her For 6 Months

The national capital, which is known to be notoriously unsafe for women, has reported yet another incident of rape. A 22-year-old Uzbek woman lodged a complaint with the Delhi Police on 31 March, alleging that she was lured into coming to Delhi on the pretext of employment, held captive and raped for six months.

According to police officials, the woman said the accused, Sonu aka Sumit, had first approached her through social media site, Facebook. He presented himself as a senior executive at a Gurgaon-based IT company. He received the woman at the airport and offered her a place to stay in Mehrauli

“Sonu took her passport and money, claiming that he needed to keep them as a security deposit. He then moved in with the woman and raped her for nearly half a year,” a police officer told Hindustan Times.

The accused, who is a resident of Mehrauli, was arrested after a medical examination of the woman confirmed rape. The police have registered a case of rape and immoral trafficking against him, and are investigating if he is part of a larger human trafficking racket.

In the last one month, this is the second case of sexual assault on an Uzbekistan national. Earlier in March, a woman residing in Vasant Kunj had accused her live-in partner and four friends of gang-raping her.

Despite public demonstrations and changes in legislation after the infamous Nirbhaya gangrape in 2012, sexual violence, rape and harassment of girls and women is recurrent in India. Culprits now receive a minimum 20 years in prison, instead of the previous 10 years. The maximum sentence for the crime is life term behind bars. However, not just legislative change, but a large-scale social change is required to tackle this menace.

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