Karnataka minister blames rape victim, asks ‘Why was she playing tennis at night?’
Bengaluru: Putting the blame squarely on the victim, Karnataka's new home minister G Parameshwara, reportedly asked why the girl was playing tennis at night.
"Why should a woman go to play tennis at 9.30 in the night?" G Parameshwara, who took charge as home minister earlier this month, said.
A 30-year-old woman was allegedly raped by two security guards at a tennis club near Bengaluru’s well-known Cubbon Park on Wednesday night. She had gone to the club for a membership and had been asked to come back the next day.
The security guards allegedly spotted her at the parking lot of the club and approached her, offering to help her gain membership. They allegedly took her to a deserted stretch and assaulted her.
This is not the first time such an irresponsible comment has been made.
On October 8, then Home Minister KJ George while speaking on the rape case of a 22-year-old BPO employee who was raped in a tempo-traveller, said, “How is it a gang rape if two people rape? Shouldn’t there be at least three or four people for it to be called gang rape?”
Few days later, when a reporter asked what the opposition party was doing to push Congress to control rape cases, a senior BJP leader Eshwarappa asked, “You are here. If someone takes you and rapes you, what is the opposition supposed to do? Tell me?”
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