Indian media outlets documented a marked rise this week in Google Internet searches for “rape video” and “rape porn” by users in the country, apparently seeking images of the brutal rape and killing of a doctor in a hospital seminar room.
The morbid incident occurred at a government hospital in Kolkata, where the 31-year-old resident doctor worked. The woman, whom authorities have avoided naming, was working her shift on August 9 when she is believed to have snuck into a hospital seminar room to take a nap. She was found that weekend dead with visible signs of violence on her body, including harrowing injuries to her face and eyes, neck, and genital area.
Authorities arrested a man identified as Sanjay Roy, a “civil volunteer” with Kolkata police, shortly thereafter. Roy reportedly confessed to the crime; Indian outlets have reported that police found violent pornography on his mobile phone and that he may be “addicted” to it.
The Quint Indian outlet reported on Tuesday that analyses of web searches in India indicated a major spike in interest for searches of the victim’s name, which leaked despite authorities forbidding its publication. Many of those searching her name attached terms such as “rape” or “rape video” or did image searches of her name, apparently seeking to find images of her attack.
The Indian outlet World Is One News (WION) later corroborated the reporting with its own look into popular searches, finding that “rape porn” and “full story video” searches along with the doctor’s name had spiked in the aftermath of the incident.
India Today reported on Tuesday that “Kolkata doctor case full story,” a search used alongside image and video searches, had also grown in popularity.
“Google Trends data shows the phrase “Kolkata doctor case full story” was searched for more than 20 lakh [2 million] times in the last six days. Users searched for the victim’s photos and videos more than two lakh times,” India Today observed.
The Australian news website News.com.au documented a 100 percent increase in searches on Google Trends for the woman’s name with the phrase “rape video” in India, but notable increases in countries such as Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The outlet reported that the increase in searches corresponded with the spread of “unverified rumors” that Roy recorded the rape and killing and uploaded it online, though at press time Indian authorities have not indicated that any such footage exists.
The Indian Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that revealing the name of a victim of deadly sexual assault was illegal. That did not stop the rapid spread of photos and videos on the Internet of the victim in Kolkata along with her name, outraging the Supreme Court.
“Photographs and video clips are all over the media. This is extremely concerning. We are first to recognise free speech but there are well-settled parameters,” the Supreme Court said in a statement this week. The Court mandated the erasure of all such identifying information from the Internet on Tuesday. “There are judgments of the court like in Nipun Saxena (case) that names of survivors of sexual assault will not be published.”
“We accordingly direct that all references to the name of the deceased in the above incident, photographs and video clips shall forthwith be removed from all social media platforms and electronic media in compliance of this order,” the court ruling read, according to New Delhi Television (NDTV). It is not clear if this grants the Indian government power to force platforms based abroad, such as Twitter and Facebook, to also delete those references.
The shocking killing prompted a nationwide strike by doctors, who suspended nonessential work over a week ago demanding the government offer adequate security for health workers, particularly women working long shifts or late at night. The strike was in response to not just this isolated incident, but a long modern history of violence against doctors in India, including cases such as families brutalizing doctors of patients who die or beating doctors demanding better care.
The Supreme Court urged doctors to give up their strike on Thursday, “emphasising that measures have now been undertaken to institutionalise their grievances,” according to the Hindu. Doctors are demanding a heavier security presence, particularly at overcrowded government hospitals, and stronger punishments for those who attack health workers.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi referenced the case on Indian Independence Day, August 15, prior to his departure to Poland and Ukraine this week.
“As a society, we will have to think seriously about the atrocities against our mothers, sisters, and daughters. There is anger among common people because of this. I can feel that rage,” Modi told an audience at an Independence Day event. “Crimes against women should be probed swiftly, and stringent punishment given to those who commit such demonic acts.”
“Those who commit such sins should know that they will be hanged,” he warned.
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