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India’s government formally opposes bid to criminalize marital rape
New Delhi — India’s government has told the country’s Supreme Court that criminalizing marital rape would be “excessively harsh,” as it opposes petitions with the court seeking to amend a British colonial-era law that says a man cannot be prosecuted for rape within marriage.
India’s Interior Ministry, in a written response sent Thursday to petitions filed with the top court, argues that while a man should face “penal consequences” for raping his wife, criminalizing the act “may seriously impact the conjugal relationship and may lead to serious disturbances in the institution of marriage.”
“A husband certainly does not have any fundamental right to violate the consent of his wife,” the government says in its affidavit. “However, attracting the crime in the nature of ‘rape’ as recognized in India to the institution of marriage can be arguably considered to be excessively harsh.”
Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code, which has been in existence since 1860 and deals with rape, exempts men from charges of rape against their wives unless the woman in question is a minor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government enacted an overhauled penal code in July that has retained that law on marital rape.
Rape within a marriage is a crime in more than 100 countries and all 50 U.S. states, where it was criminalized in the mid-1990s. But India is among the nations — along with Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia — where it is not illegal for a man to rape his wife.
The Indian government has argued that there are already sufficient legal protections for married women against sexual and domestic violence. The government’s affidavit this week says marital rape was addressed in a 2005 law protecting women from domestic violence.
That law recognizes sexual abuse as a form of domestic violence but does not explicitly lay out penalties for it. Another section of the penal code imposes a prison term of up to three years for men found guilty of acts broadly defined as “cruelty” against their spouse.
Same-sex marriage is not currently permitted in India.
Violence within marriage is rampant in India. Six percent of married Indian women have reported sexual violence at the hands of their husbands, according to the government’s latest National Family Health Survey, conducted from 2019 to 2021.
The government and various religious groups have opposed petitions seeking to amend the rape laws for years, often arguing that sexual consent is “implied” by marriage and cannot be retracted.
Rights activists say that argument is outdated, especially when cases of sexual violence against women are rising in the country.
DIBYANGSHU SARKAR/AFP/Getty
India is still facing protests and strikes by medical workers over the August rape and murder of a young female doctor in the city of Kolkata.
The petitions seeking changes in the century-and-a-half-old rape laws were filed with India’s Supreme Court after the lower Delhi High Court delivered a split verdict on the matter in 2022. Arguments in the case are expected to continue for months before a verdict is delivered.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
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Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.