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What you need to know
- Bengaluru student dies after being attacked following rejected advance
- The list of cases of violence following rejected romance in India grows
- What is driving these instances of violence over rejected romantic advances?
Here is a roundup of the latest news from India on Thursday, July 16:
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Skip next section Sonam Wangchuk continues hunger strike, court directs health monitoring07/16/2026July 16, 2026
Sonam Wangchuk continues hunger strike, court directs health monitoring
On the 19th day of environmental and education reform activist Sonam Wangchuk’s hunger strike, Delhi High Court on Thursday reportedly directed authorities to monitor his health daily amid concerns over his deteriorating condition.
The government assured the court that the activist’s health would be monitored, the Hindustan Times reported.
Wangchuk, along with supporters of the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), are camped at the capital’s historic grounds of Jantar Mantar, demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Supporters of the viral “cockroach” movement are calling for Pradhan’s ouster over alleged exam irregularities.
Wangchuk on Wednesday refused to end his fast, saying doing so would send a message to the government that they don’t have to be accountable to the people.
CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke earlier reported that the 59-year-old was rapidly losing weight and muscle mass with blood sugar dropping to abnormally low levels.
Meanwhile, the CJP organized a one-day mass hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in solidarity with Wangchuk on Thursday.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HCf4Skip next section What is driving instances of violence following rejected romantic advances?07/16/2026July 16, 2026
What is driving instances of violence following rejected romantic advances?
Most of the recent cases of violence following rejected romantic advances disproportionately involve men attacking women.
Mumbai-based psychotherapist Arpita Bohra told DW that such possessiveness and entitlement stem from perpetrators’ viewing of women as something they possess rather than as autonomous individuals.
Bohra said the violence comes “from the sense that this is mine. It belongs to me. If I can’t have it, nobody else can have it,” a mindset she said is driven by the dehumanization of women.
“When a boundary is set, when the woman becomes unavailable, there is a very destructive aggression and entitlement that comes out,” she said, adding that such violence is often used to “punish women” and “put women in their place.”
Riya Khanna, a psychologist, points out that men are brought up with a sense of entitlement that “dictates them to take extreme action if something is not going their way.”
“Such men might have been privy to instances of violence, abuse, or volatile environment which can make them believe that is normal,” Khanna said.
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https://p.dw.com/p/5HC8uSkip next section India’s spate of gender violence following rejected romantic advances07/16/2026July 16, 2026
India’s spate of gender violence following rejected romantic advances
The death of the student in Bangalore was one of many similar incidents across India resulting in murder following rejected proposals or romantic advances:
May 16, Jadcherla, Telangana: A 22-year-old woman was stabbed multiple times after reportedly rejecting a man’s marriage proposal, according to The New Indian Express newspaper
May 29, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh: An 18-month-old boy was killed by a man after the boy’s mother allegedly rejected the man’s marriage proposal, multiple news reports said. The man was sentenced to death
June 29, Bengaluru, Karnataka: A 23-year-old woman was stabbed to death by her boyfriend after she allegedly refused to marry him, The New Indian Express reported
July 3, Bolangir, Odisha: A man attacked the family of woman who had called off their marriage earlier and killed her uncle, the India Today reported
July 9, Bengaluru, Karnataka: A man stabbed his ex-girlfriend after she rejected his attempts to revive their relationship and was going to marry someone else, NDTV reported. The woman survived the attack
July 9, Chennai: A man was arrested for assaulting and threatening to kill a woman after she pressed him to marry her following a relationship, the Times of India said
July 15, Howrah, West Bengal: A 16-year-old schoolgirl was stabbed to death by a man after allegedly rejecting his advances, according to the Times of India
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https://p.dw.com/p/5HC6KSkip next section Bengaluru student’s dies after being attacked following rejected proposal07/16/2026July 16, 2026
Bengaluru student’s dies after being attacked following rejected proposal
A student in her 20s died in the southern city of Bengaluru on Wednesday evening, over 48 hours after she was reportedly stabbed by the brother of a man whose marriage proposal she had rejected, the Times of India said, citing local police.
According to investigators quoted by the newspaper, the student called off her relationship with her partner, Dhanush, after she found out that he had allegedly concealed that he had previously been married and had a child.
Dhanush’s brother, Surya, had threatened the victim over her decision and during an altercation at her home on Monday, he allegedly stabbed her in the chest and the back, the report said.
The suspect was apprehended by police. Both Surya and Dhanush are in police custody as authorities investigate their roles in the incident.
There have been a spate of such attacks over rejected proposals in India recently.
https://p.dw.com/p/5HC2KSkip next section Welcome to our coverage07/16/2026July 16, 2026
Welcome to our coverage
Shakeel Sobhan | Karl Sexton Editor
Hello! This is Shakeel from DW’s New Delhi Studio, bringing you the latest news from across India.
On Wednesday, a student died in Bengaluru after she was reportedly stabbed by the brother of a man whose marriage proposal she had rejected. This was just another in a string of murders and attacks over failed romantic overtures.
In New Delhi, the Cockroach Janta Party protest is ongoing as hunger-striking activist Sonam Wangchuk’s condition deteriorated on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Indian government barred Indian seafarers from the Strait of Hormuz following an upsurge in attacks in the region.
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