A dark trade: Rape videos for sale in India
News24xx.com - In this industrial northern state, you can buy footage of a woman being raped for the price of a cheap.
Several videos that appeared to depict rape for sale across the state. They cost from Rs 20 to Rs 200 (30 cents to USD 3 or IDR 45 thousand) and are transmitted to a customer's mobile phone in a matter of seconds.
The faces of the women are visible in these films. Their voices are clear. The attacks on them are brutal.
In Meerut, a city in western Uttar Pradesh, an area mostly known for the manufacturing of sporting goods, local contacts indicated that the movie files, marketed as rape videos, were available in nearby villages.
With shopkeepers cautious about selling them to non-locals, one local man in the village of Incholi - roughly 15km from Meerut - agreed to buy one and show it.
Shahnawaz, who declined to use his real name, said that the videos are not generally made with the intention of being sold on the open market. Still, he's heard a lot about them.
"They make it to blackmail the victims of rape. so that they don't go and file a complaint in the nearest police station," Shawnawaz explained.
Sometimes, he said, the videos are stolen from the perpetrator's phone when he takes his device to a shop for repairs. The stolen footage is then sold to anyone who asks for it.
Most shopkeepers are careful to sell the videos only to locals, and generally deny any knowledge of them.
Once a rape video reaches one dealer, it spreads like wildfire, through applications such as WhatsApp, to other parts of the country. In fact, WhatsApp sex videos is one term used for rape videos in this part of the country.
In the village of Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh, one man who readily admitted that he frequently purchases pornography - particularly videos of rape - that he buys them from other nearby villages.
The videos he buys at shops and kiosks come mainly from other customers who sell the footage to the shopkeepers, he explained. He has a collection of these films on his laptop and described the rape footage as pornography.
The Inspector General of Police for Meerut Range, Ajay Anand, told Al Jazeera that he was new to the job to know anything about the videos.
"I have been posted here recently. Hence I don't have any idea of these rape videos being sold in the market," he said.
"I am not in a position to comment. I don't know the authenticity of these rape videos. I need to see them first before making any comment."
A senior leader of the Bhartiya Janta Party, Sanjeev Balyan - who is also a member of parliament for Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh - said that he believes the government's insensitivity towards women is a major factor in the rise of sexual violence in the country.
"In my constituency, I have heard about such videos being sold but police have taken no concrete action to stop this social malice. This proves how insensitive this government is towards the safety of women and their dignity," he said.
"In states like Uttar Pradesh, there is no supremacy of rule and order. Police act at the orders of politicians; even local politicians have an influence on police forces," he added.
The videos were deeply disturbing, and included what appeared to be a minor. One woman begged her rapists to stop, saying that her only recourse would be suicide. Another begged her assailants to at least stop recording the attack.
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