A man allegedly raped a woman near a busy Indian roadway—all while dozens of onlookers recorded the ordeal on cellphones instead of coming to the woman’s rescue.
According to the Hindustan Times, Ganji Siva, 23, is accused of carrying out the violent attack in Visakhapatnam around 2:30 p.m. Sunday. The victim, a 43-year-old woman, left her home two days prior following a family dispute. The News Minute noted that the victim suffered from a mental illness.
“Apparently, she was very weak as she had not eaten for several hours and was sleeping on the footpath under the shadow of a tree, when Siva, in an inebriated condition assaulted her sexually,” police sub-inspector K Suresh said.
Though the woman was reportedly so weak she couldn’t even scream, eyewitnesses allegedly did nothing to help. In fact, some of them used their cellphones to record the assault, according to Suresh.
A video of the ordeal appears to show people walking past Siva attacking the woman. At one point, a man is seen abruptly changing his course but not stepping in, according to NDTV.
One of the spectators, a truck driver, turned the footage over to authorities, leading to Siva’s arrest hours later. Authorities said the truck driver claimed that he didn’t know how to react at the time, according to The News Minute.
Officer Madhusudanamurthy told NDTV that both the victim and suspect’s statements were “incoherent.”
The woman is currently being hospitalized for her injuries. Her condition is unknown at this time.
Suresh added that Sunday’s incident “clearly shows how the people have become insensitive to attacks on women.”
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