They are calling her Kerala’s ‘Nirbhaya’ – the fearless one – the name, originally a pseudonym given to the victim of the gruesome Delhi gang-rape and murder of 2012.

This time, the victim is a 30-year-old law student from Perumbavoor, Kerala. Fighting poverty and caste discrimination, this Dalit woman was on her way to getting a degree in law. Then on April 28, unknown assailants murdered her brutally. Her body was found by her mother, lying in a pool of blood, partially disrobed. There were approximately 30 stab wounds on her chest, chin, neck and back of the head, and she also sustained a severe head injury, which may have been the ultimate cause of death. In a horrible reminder of the Delhi gang-rape, here too the woman’s intestines were reportedly pulled out of her genitals. The nature of the injuries on her body indicates she was tortured severely. Reports say she was first raped, and then brutally murdered.

Even as the case awaits its logical conclusion, the brutality involved has shaken up the state and nation. In fact, it was a concerted social media campaign, which eventually forced larger media attention on the case. But constant comparisons with the ‘Nirbhaya’ case have struck a jarring note. It is almost as if the 2012 case has become a kind of benchmark for popular outrage on rapes. The brutality of the rape has become more important than the crime itself. Has a ‘Nirbhaya-like rape’ become the ultimate criteria for sustained reporting and outrage?

The way the rape and murder of the law student has been approached by the media suggests some uncomfortable insights into the way we respond to violent crimes against women. It seemed to take details of the torture that was inflicted upon the law student — in particular, that her intestines had been pulled out —to shock people into attention. Is rape and murder any less reprehensible if it doesn’t involve torture? Have we become immune to crimes that aren’t this graphic and extreme? It seems so.

When the national media did ultimately pick up this story, resemblances to the 2012 Delhi gang-rape and murder were highlighted. Consider some of the headlines:

Kerala: Dalit law student’s brutal rape and murder is a chilling reminder of Nirbhaya case (DNA)

Nirbhaya-like rape-murder of Dalit law student in Kerala? (TOI)

#Kerala’sNirbhaya: Kochi law student brutally murdered… (On Manorama)

However, Malayalam writer NS Madhavan said that despite the comparisons being drawn, the two cases are actually different. “This has very little comparison with the Delhi rape, other than the horrible similarity in the nature of injuries,” he said. “Here the victim was in her house and alone. The usual repulsive arguments about dress or being with men etc. are not applicable here, unless they, in a deviously ingenious way, pick on her being alone.”

Speaking of this case, he said, “It was probably the absence of a PLU [People Like Us] factor that kept the national and highly vocal Malayalam media away, till there was outrage on social media.” He contrasted this to the reports of the Delhi gang-rape of 2012, which struck an immediate chord across urban India.

Activist Sunitha Krishnan, who has been closely involved in the case, blamed the metro-centric mindset of the national media, for taking note of crimes against women only when they take place in a big city like Delhi or Mumbai. “It is almost like saying that if one were to get raped, it is better to get raped in Delhi or Mumbai, or else the media does not take note of it,” she said. “Women are getting raped every day and a lot of these cases involve brutality. But, in how many of these cases, does media take note?”

However, Dr Kalpana Vishwanath, a researcher who has been working on cases related to violence against women, disagreed. “I do believe that there is a fair amount of coverage accorded to crimes against women and children,” she said. “All said and done, the December 2012 incident has become a landmark, a moment in the history of addressing violence against women. That has to be kept in mind.”

Kochi Range IG Mahipal Yadav, who is leading the probe, claimed that despite all comparisons with the Delhi gang-rape, the case is significantly different. He said the deep wounds on the body were inflicted after the murder of the woman. Although most news reports claimed that the victim was first raped, and then later murdered, the chronology is yet to be confirmed. Yadav said that while the police are awaiting the forensic reports, a rape case had been registered given the brutal nature of the injuries.

Speaking to Newslaundry, Dhanya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of The News Minute, said it has been hard to confirm whether the case was of a rape and murder, or only murder because most news reports are drawing from a single source. She said the graphic details of the nature of injuries on the body of the victim need to be attributed to a particular authoritative source, and that has not happened. “I got in touch with many journalists on the ground, to find out the source of the information they have been putting out. They told me they are going solely by one particular report, put out by a Malayalam channel,” she said.

On Tuesday, the police took three men into custody, among whom one is believed to be a neighbour of the victim. Even as the case has put poll-bound Kerala on the boil, another case of gang-rape was reported from the state, in which a 20-year-old nursing student was allegedly raped by three men.