New Delhi, August 11
An increasing number of women run the risk of being raped or molested by acquaintances and neighbours. On Thursday, a Faridabad-based call centre worker was gang-raped. One of the assailants was known to her. On the same day, 25-year-old Mumbai lawyer Pallavi Purukayastha was murdered by the watchman of her building. The murder followed a failed bid to rape her at knife-point.

In both cases, the crime was committed by men who were in one way or the other acquainted with the victims.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report for 2011 shows Delhi as the ‘rape city’ of India. Of the total 88 cities analysed by the NCRB, the city of Delhi reported 453 rape cases, which is the highest in the country. In these 88 cities, a total of 2,579 women were raped. In other words, every fifth rape in an urban area in the country was committed in Delhi.

Mumbai followed Delhi with 221 rapes while Bhopal was third with over 100 cases. The NCRB says 24,206 women were raped across the country during 2011, and in 7,619 cases, the rapist happened to a neighbour.

On Thursday, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha that the number of neighbours - who, traditionally, were perceived to be a part of the social security net - involved in rape cases was increasing.

In 2009, the figure stood at 6,948 and it jumped to 7,619 in 2011. In Madhya Pradesh, neighbours figured in 1,849 cases of rape out of the total 3,406 cases, making it more than 50 per cent of the cases. These figures are for reported cases only. Several cases go unreported as women do not come forward because of threat, family prestige or simply out of shame.

In the Faridabad rape case, the woman was working at a call centre of Delhi Jal Board. Inderjeet, who was among the eight rapists, rang her up around 8 pm, telling her he had fought with his girlfriend and called her to Ballabgarh in Faridabad District to intervene. The woman who was raped and the Inderjeet’s purported girlfriend knew each other. Inderjeet knew the victim from here previous job at a shoe factory. The call centre where she worked is in Badarpur on the Delhi-Faridabad border. The victim met Inderjeet at 8 pm after her shift got over. She was bundled into a car and raped by the accused for more than six hours.

In case of Pallavi Purukayastha, the watchman of the building, knew that her live-in partner wasn’t home when he sneaked into her sixth floor flat around 1.30 am. After Pallavi resisted, the watchman slit her throat.

In July, a Class X Patna school girl was raped by her schoolmates who filmed the gang-rape and uploaded the video on the net. They were nabbed later.