ISLAMABAD: A 30-year-old woman survived a gang rape by five armed men in Begusarai, a district in Bihar state in eastern India, in June 2026, only to discover during emergency surgery that her attackers had inserted a live firearm cartridge, jagged stone, and wooden fragments into her body, according to Times of India.
The case has exposed severe institutional failures across law enforcement, medical services, and the judicial system in a country where sexual violence towards women remains endemic.
On June 11, the woman was attacked near an outdoor toilet near her home, according to Times of India. The assailants locked her husband inside a room, gagged and bound her, then dragged her to a secluded location.
Her sister-in-law discovered her unconscious at midnight, per India Today. She was rushed to Begusarai Sadar Hospital on June 12 and discharged after basic wound treatment despite severe abdominal pain.
When pain became unbearable on June 17, ultrasound imaging revealed foreign bodies. During emergency surgery on June 18, doctors extracted the cartridge, stone, and wood, Times of India reported.
Police failed to immediately register the case, a critical procedural failure. When the family first approached the police station, officers on duty refused to secure the crime scene or register the case immediately, instead advising the family to seek medical treatment first, per India Today. This delay severely compromised evidence preservation.
The formal “First Information Report” (the first written report filed with the police about a serious crime) was registered on June 13, two days after the assault, according to the report.
The family identified three primary suspects; these same men had broken into the victim's home in March 2026, attempted to sexually assault her, and beaten her family members.
Despite a police case being registered, they secured bail and faced no active restrictions, enabling them to target the victim again in June, India Today reported.
Begusarai reflects patterns across Bihar. In March 2025, ten youths gang-raped a 16-year-old girl in Darbhanga district. The family delayed registering an FIR for ten days because suspects, including the son of an influential local figure, threatened to leak a video recording of the assault on social media, according to The Hindu.
In July 2025, a Bihar Military Police aspirant was gang-raped inside an ambulance en route to hospital by the driver and technician, The Hindu reported.
Crimes against women in Bihar rose from 17,950 cases in 2021 to 22,952 by 2023, per the National Crime Records Bureau. Nationally, registered crimes against women grew from 428,278 cases in 2021 to 448,211 by 2023. Kidnapping and abduction of women rose from 75,369 cases nationally in 2021 to 88,605 by 2023.
Bihar reported a rape rate of 1.2 per 100,000 female residents in 2019, among India's lowest, according to National Crime Records Bureau data, compared to the national average of 4.5 per 100,000. Yet international research estimates, such as UN Women and even the Indian government’s own Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, suggest that rapes reported to Indian law enforcement represent between 1 in 10 and 1 in 200 of actual incidents.
The National Family Health Survey revealed that approximately 31% of ever-married women in India have experienced physical, sexual, or emotional spousal violence in their lifetime. UN Women data indicates that 36.2 % of ever-partnered women in India have experienced physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetimes.
According to the Centre for Child Law and Policy's analysis of NCRB crime statistics, India has established over 1,175 specialized courts to handle sexual assault cases. Yet more than 130,000 rape cases remain pending trial as of late 2023, with average trial times exceeding five years.
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