Rapists asked if I ate beef, Indian woman claims

Police have arrested four men from the village and booked them for trespass, rape and murder

One of two women who were gang-raped almost two weeks ago in Haryana has alleged that the attackers asked if they ate beef.

"They asked if we eat beef. We said we don't, but they insisted we did," the woman revealed to journalists in Delhi. "The attackers then said they were hurting us because we did [eat beef], and if we were to report them it would only result in our own embarrassment."



Police officials informed that investigations did not reveal links to 'cow-vigilante' groups. "Neither women nor their families had mentioned these allegations earlier," they said. Furthermore, the Haryana state government has recommended that Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe the case.

The 20-year-old woman and her 14-year-old cousin were sexually assaulted by a group of men at their home in Mewat on August 24. The victims' uncle and aunt were also tied up and beaten to death in the same incident.

Haryana police arrested four men from the village and booked them for trespass, rape and murder. "The main motive seems to have been rape," the victims' cousin told NDTV. "The four arrested men are known troublemakers in the village and had been seen drinking the morning of the attack".



Tensions are running high in Mewat, Haryana's Muslim-dominated region, ahead of Eidul Azha on Tuesday after a state-run laboratory confirmed traces of beef from seven biryani samples picked up by the police. Cow-slaughter, sale and storage of beef is illegal in Haryana. It is punishable by a 10-year jail term and/or a fine of INR100,000 to Rs500,000.

This article originally appeared on NDTV.