Delhi Bus Gang Rapist Mukesh Singh Blames Victim for Fighting Back 

In 2012, 23-year-old Jyoti Singh was returning from a night at the movies with a male friend in Delhi, India when they caught a ride on a minibus. Inside, six men beat her with iron rods and gang-raped her. She died two days later from her injuries. In a jailhouse interview, one of the men convicted in the attack now says the rape was Singh’s fault, because she was out at night.

“A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night,” Mukesh Singh reportedly said during an interview for a BBC documentary. “A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

Mukesh was driving the bus; he has denied participating in the attack against Jyoti and her friend, who was brutally beaten as she was raped. Mukesh and three other men were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, a conviction they’re appealing. In 2013, Mukesh expressed something that sounded like remorse, saying that if he could talk to the woman’s family, he would tell them, “I’m sorry. I could not save her. Please forgive me if you can.”

In the BBC interview, though, as reported by the Telegraph, Mukesh said the beating was her fault, for fighting back: “When being raped, she shouldn’t fight back. She should just be silent and allow the rape. Then they’d have dropped her off after ‘doing her’, and only hit the boy.”

He added, too, that a “decent” woman wouldn’t have been out at night anyway: “You can’t clap with one hand – it takes two hands. A decent girl won’t roam around at 9 o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy. Boy and girl are not equal. Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20 per cent of girls are good.”

Mukesh also claimed that executing him and the other men convicted in Jyoti’s death will only encourage rapists to kill their victims: “Before, they would rape and say, ‘Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death.”

BBC 4 will broadcast their interview with Mukesh Singh on March 8.

Protesters mark the second anniversary of Jyoti’s death, December 16, 2014. The noose represents their demand for the death penalty against rapists. Photo via AP