Five years ago, a 13 -year -old girl, daughter of poor workers from one of her most marginalized communities Indiashe was allegedly sexually abused by one of her neighbors in the village she lived.

The alleged rapist took a video and the police investigated if she used it to blackmail the girl to sexually abused by dozens of other men and boys in the next five years.

According to police, complaints came to light after the girl, now 18, spoke with a consultant who visited her college in Kerala and described the years of horrible abuse.

A total of 58 men and boys were arrested and charged with sexual assault, rape and a group rape of the girl. Two other men wanted in relation to the case have abandoned the country, Deputy Cerala Police Inspector Ajeetha Begum told CNN.

Among the defendants are her classmates, her relatives, her neighbors, men from all aspects of her life, from minors up to men 40, according to documents in the case examined by CNN.

Categories have not yet been brought and 58 men remain in custody. None of the defendants have spoken publicly about the charges. As the Indian rape law provides, the girl has not been named.

Violence against women is uncontrolled in India due to established sexism and patriarchy, despite the fact that the laws have been amended and more stricter penalties for the abusers are now foreseen.

In August, the rape and murder of a doctor in Calcutta It triggered a nationwide strike of doctors who brought tens of thousands to the streets to demand change.

Kerala’s case has not caused a similar outburst.

Experts estimate that this is because the victim comes from the Dalit community, located at the bottom of the Hindu Casta system, a 3,000 -year -old social and religious hierarchy that categorizes people at birth and defines their position in society.

Dalite traditional practices that are considered ‘unclean’ rituals by Hindu Scriptures, such as garbage collection and road wiping.

They are forbidden to visit temples and force them to live separately from higher caste communities, often in miserable state and far from access to services.

Despite the legislation prohibiting caste -based discrimination, activists say that more than 260 million India’s dalit are vulnerable to abuse and with little access to justice for crimes committed against them.

“When it comes to Dalit women, rage is generally smaller in the whole country,” said Cynthia Stephen, a Dalit rights activist.

“There is a feeling that this girl is not ‘one of us” she said.

Abuse

In this case, the case seems to have started when the young man from the village harassed the girl and took sexual videos and photos, police told CNN.

At least three of her rapists promised to marry her, according to police. One threatened to kill her if she was talking.

Some of the men acted on their own, but others are accused of group rape. “Not all cases are linked to each other. But in one case, there may be four or five defendants, “Begum said from Kerala police.

Many of the men contacted the young girl on her father’s phone through social networking applications such as Instagram and Whatsapp, late at night after he went to bed.

The abuse was done in private and public places, in homes and cars, at bus stops and in fields. Some of the cases allegedly concerned men who were foreigners who lived in cities dozens of miles away.

Some of the cases concern complaints about human trafficking because men forced the girl to travel outside her village, police said.

Complaints have shocked the girl’s village on the lush hills of Kerala.

Police say the girl’s parents had been working for many hours and did not know about their daughter’s abuse.

When the complaints were announced, some community women were compassionate to the accused and were angry with the victim, while criticizing the girl’s clothes and lifestyle and accused her mother who did not watch her more carefully, they reported local media. The News Minute.