Crimes that shook India in 2017

Seven-year-old Pradyuman Thakur was found with his throat slit in the washroom of Gurugram's Ryan International School on September 8. The Gurgaon Police had initially said the crime was committed by a school bus conductor, Ashok Kumar, which the CBI later refuted. In a major twist, the crime branch had arrested a class 11 student hailing from the same school in charge of murdering Pradyuman. The CBI claimed the teenager had killed Pradhuman in a bid to get the school closed so that a scheduled parent-teacher meeting and an examination could be deferred.

On September 6, senior journalist Gauri Lankesh was shot dead at her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar in Bengaluru. Editor of Kannada tabloid 'Lankesh Patrike', Gauri, aged 55, had returned home in her car and was opening the gate when motorcycle-borne assailants fired at her indiscriminately with two bullets hitting her in the chest and one on her forehead. In 2016, Gauri was convicted of criminal defamation by the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Court in Hubballi. A penalty of Rs 10,000 was also imposed on her. She had received bail the same day. The defamation case was filed by BJP MP Prahlad Joshi over a report published in Gauri's tabloid against some BJP leaders.

A 19-year-old woman, daughter of a police couple, was gang-raped for three hours near the Habibganj Railway Station in Bhopal, On September 30. The girl, preparing for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) exams, was abducted and raped by four men. She was abducted while she was returning home after attending a coaching class in Maharana Pratap Nagar. The four men, identified as Golu Bihari, Amar Chhantu, Rajesh, and Ramesh, had tied the girl and took turns to sexually assault her. The accused, as per the reports, even took tea and gutkha breaks before returning to repeatedly rape her.

Following the conviction of self-styled godman Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, his so-called adopted daughter Honeypreet Insan played a pivotal role in inciting violence in Panchkula that claimed at least 38 lives. During interrogation, Honeypreet admitted to preparing the guide maps of Panchkula, where the violence was perpetrated. She also revealed that Dera functionaries were given the responsibility to organise and fund the violence. A blueprint of the August 25 violence was prepared in a meeting that was held on August 17, days before Dera chief Ram Rahim was convicted by the CBI court in a 2002 rape case, said the investigators.

A Muslim man was burnt to death in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district in an alleged case of love jihad. The incident was recorded on camera by the accused himself. In the video, the accused Shambhu Lal can be seen beating the victim and then setting him on fire. The video has since gone viral on social media. The victim, identified as Mohammed Afrazul, was called to the spot by Lal and was later hacked to death. Afrazul is believed to have been a migrant from West Bengal's Malda who was working as a labourer in Rajsamand. The accused allegedly got a friend with him to record the video of the incident. The victim can be seen crying for help in the video even as the accused beats him with an axe and later burns him alive.

At least 45 girls were rescued by the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) along with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) and the Delhi Police from Rohini's Adhyatmik Vishwa Vidyalaya. The step was taken after the Delhi High Court formed a panel consisting of lawyers and the DCW chief to inspect the premises of the ashram, owned by the Baba Virender Dikshit, where girls and women were allegedly kept in illegal confinement. The residents of the area alleged that these minors had been "trapped" inside the ashram and were trained to work as sex workers. The court also raised concerns about the alleged illegal activities being conducted in the ashram in the name of teaching meditation to devotees, many of whom were being forcibly kept in prison-like conditions.