Some fathers will do literally anything to protect their little girls - including taking the law into their own hands when someone attacks them. Parminder Singh is a 25-year-old dad who turned vigilante to get revenge on the man who raped his 7-month-old baby daughter. What he did was horrific, but many people, especially other parents, sympathized with his situation. The condition of the rapist shocked doctors and left the community in a moral quandary. Was he right to do it?
Singh's victim was 14 years old when he was caught by Singh's wife molesting their daughter. After the teen allegedly raped the 7-month-old baby, Singh was naturally out for blood, and plotted his revenge on the boy who attacked his helpless daughter. We can all understand Singh's rage, but we don't think many could have done what he did next...
Singh had actually waited patiently for justice to be served, but more than two years and yet another postponed court date later, he simply couldn't take it anymore. He approached the now 17-year-old about settling outside of court and offered him a ride home in an effort to get the boy on his motorbike and to somewhere quiet where he could act out his revenge.
A brick kiln laborer by trade, Singh is no small man, and with the rage he felt over his daughter, the teen boy didn't stand a chance. Singh took the boy out to a canal, tied him to a tree, and beat him severely. He then withdrew a machete and cut both of his hands off at the wrist before fleeing the scene and abandoning the teen, still tied up, at the canal.
Police say the boy would have bled out and died by the canal if local villagers hadn't heard his cries and rescued him. They stumbled upon a gruesome scene: the boy was tied up and bleeding profusely, his amputated hands on the ground beside him. By this time, there was no sign of Singh and the boy was rushed to the nearest hospital by police.
Local police have spoken out to confirm the events. "Singh took him near a dried-up canal, beat him up badly and then tied him to a tree and finally hacked his hands off. There is nothing below the wrists now," senior Bathinda police officer, Swapan Sharma, told the media. "Locals alerted police and we rushed to the spot. We picked him up, his hands, and took him to the hospital."
In a strange turn, police made very sure to announce that they were the ones who brought the teen boy to Bathinda Hospital. However, the locals who discovered him, as well as the reputable Indian Express, claim that it was the villagers who brought the boy for emergency treatment. Were the police feeling guilty about what happened?
Singh's victim is in a stable medical condition; however, police are still hunting him down for attempted murder. Singh has not been seen since the day he lured the boy onto his motorbike, promising a lift home to Kotli Ablu, the village where they both live. If we hazard a guess, we'd say there'd be plenty of people willing to help Singh stay on the run.
The incident took place in the Bathinda district of Punjab, India, where it led to the local government cracking down on rapists in order to protect women and children. However, the legal system remains painfully slow, which leads many wronged parties to turn to vigilantism when they feel they can't wait any longer. This is what happened to Parminder Singh.
Not exactly famous for being a safe haven for women, the statistics in India are a little depressing to take in. Every year, at least 25,000 cases of rape are reported. Bear in mind that this is only reported cases, and the actual number of rapes would be several times higher than that. Nearly one in three rape victims in India are under 18.
Though Singh didn't actually murder the teen boy who raped his daughter, other men before him have gone all the way. In 2014, an Indian father tortured and killed his daughter's rapist in his own home, before turning himself in to police. Here's hoping that swifter and more severe punishments are handed down to rapists so fathers don't have to take the law into their own hands anymore.