She had done it a thousand times before — walking back from her agricultural field in a remote village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Lower Dibang Valley district, the kind of quiet, routine journey that marks the end of a long day’s work. But on September 9, that familiar walk home turned into a nightmare that no woman — and certainly no 70-year-old woman — should ever have to endure.
According to police, a man identified as Kangge Pertin allegedly intercepted the elderly woman on her way back, choked her, overpowered her, and forced her to the ground. The assault only stopped because people happened to be approaching the area. Pertin fled the moment he noticed them. That near-coincidence — the presence of bystanders nearby — is quite possibly the only reason this story did not end far worse.
A case was swiftly registered at the Dambuk police station under multiple provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections relating to rape and attempt to murder. Those two charges together tell you everything about the gravity of what allegedly took place. This was not a minor incident. This was an attack that combined sexual violence with a level of physical force that put a 70-year-old woman’s life in real danger.
Pertin was arrested following the incident and produced before a court. He has since been remanded to 14 days in judicial custody.
The Arunachal Pradesh Women’s Welfare Society (APWWS) wasted no time in responding. The organisation publicly condemned the assault and demanded strict action against the accused. That demand is entirely justified. When an elderly woman cannot walk home from her own field without facing violence of this nature, something has gone deeply, disturbingly wrong — not just in one community, but in the social fabric that is supposed to protect its most vulnerable members.
What makes this case particularly hard to sit with is the setting. Remote villages in districts like Lower Dibang Valley are places where communities often live close-knit lives, where neighbours know each other, where the rhythms of daily life — farming, walking, returning home — should carry a basic sense of safety. The idea that a woman of 70 was targeted in that environment, in broad daylight while going about her daily routine, rattles something fundamental about the trust people place in the world around them.
It is worth noting that cases like this rarely surface unless someone speaks up, or in this instance, unless someone happened to be nearby. For every case that reaches a police station and makes the news, there are others that do not. That reality deserves as much attention as the arrest itself.
The investigation is now underway. The courts will determine guilt. But the deeper question — about why elderly women, about why any woman, remain targets of such violence — is one that no arrest alone can answer. Justice for this 70-year-old woman means more than a conviction. It means asking hard questions about accountability, community vigilance, and the safety of those who are most easily preyed upon.
She was just walking home. She deserved to make it there safely.
