Teacher sparks outrage after claiming Nirbhaya gang rape was 'victim's mistake'

A biology teacher in India has attracted scathing criticism after students recorded her telling a class that Dehli's 2012 widely-reported gang rape, which saw six men beat and rape a student to death, had been the victim's fault. The case, known as 'Nirbhaya', is symbolic to the women's movement in India and led to numerous demonstrations across the country.

Students at the school in Raipur allegedly complained about the teacher, Snehlata Shankhawar, but the principal said that initially he had been shocked by the comments that he thought it was a prank by the students. Girls in the school recorded the sessions with the teacher, Maharashtra Today reported.

"Girls expose their body only when they don't have beautiful faces," Shankhawar says at one point, going on to say that girls were now "shameless" and that she did not understand why "an issue was made" over the Nirbhaya case when the victim had been out of the house late with a man who was not her husband.

The victim, Jyoti Singh, had been travelling on a private bus with a male friend, Awindra Pratap Pandey, who was also severely beaten by the rapists.

The recording reportedly noted Shankhawar saying that the incident was "Nirbhaya's mistake and not the boys," adding that "girls who face such incidents are cursed and it's a punishment for them".

"The fault in the Nirbhaya case episode rested soley on the girl. Nobody does things like that just randomly to people," Times Now translated the teacher as saying. Numerous people on social media voiced their outrage against the teacher's comments with one Twitter user writing "this is like a wrong statement on so many levels".

Another critic branded the statements "regressive thinking" and several called for the teacher to be sacked. "People like this in edu. system are flushing the future of India down the drain," another user wrote.