A woman in India was gang raped and brutally beaten before being hung naked to an electrical pole.
The 22-year-old woman is thought to have been snatched by a group of men while on her way to a public toilet and taken to a deserted area in her village in Bihar, east India.
According to local media, she was gang raped and heinously beaten when she tried resisting the sick assault.
Seven people are reportedly being held by police on suspicion of being involved in the attack, India Today reports.
The woman, who is in critical condition and unable to speak, was also stripped of her jewellery as her attackers threatened to kill her.
Local villagers allege labourers who had been called in to set up tents for a wedding that was being held at her home are responsible for the assault.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
As they then thought she was dead, they attached her to an electric pole with no clothes on before villagers found her unconscious and in a critical state.
She was rushed to hospital in Dalsinghsarai before being referred to another hospital for treatment, where she is still fighting for her life.
Seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the attack, reports the Times of India.
Samastipur SP Manavjit Singh Dhillon said on several occasions women in villages have not reported their rapes to police due to the social stigma in India.
India has come under the global spotlight in recent years for its record on sexual violence.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 32,033 rape cases were recorded in the country in 2019, or 88 a day on average.
While this gives India a significantly lower per-capita rate than other countries – and roughly a quarter of France’s for example – it is widely accepted that a high proportion of rapes in the country are not reported.
This may be in part due to a cultural of victim blaming which can stretch from villages to the court system.
(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a public bus in Delhi in 2012 sparked large protests across the capital.
But the situation doesn’t seem to have improved over the years as reports of heinous sexual attacks on Indian girls and women keep emerging.
Just last month it was reported how a teenager was tied to a pole alongside her alleged rapist and beaten up as part of a ritual carried out by villagers.