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Police held over India gang rape

May 30, 2014

Police say they have arrested four men charged over the rapes and murders of two girls found hanged in northern India. Neighbors of the victims accuse police of ignoring a complaint that the girls had gone missing.

https://p.dw.com/p/1C9Aa
A man peeks through an opening of a door to a prison ward during a concert at the Tihar jail in New Delhi on April 26, 2012. The event was an unusual break from the daily routine at Tihar jail, a vast complex in the west of the Indian capital where 12,000 inmates ranging from trial suspects to convicted murderers are incarcerated. According to the International Center for Prison Studies, India houses some 330,000 inmates in its prisons, making it the fifth largest inmate population in the world. AFP PHOTO/ROBERTO SCHMIDT (Photo: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/GettyImages)
Image: ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP/GettyImages

Officials revealed on Thursday that at least two of the men they arrested over the rape and murder of two girls in the state of Uttar Pradesh were serving police officers.

Police arrested four men late on Wednesday, following a silent protest by villagers from Katra, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of the state capital, Lucknow. Authorities said they were still searching for a further three suspects.

Villagers - who accused the police of inaction - found the two girls' bodies hanging from a tree early on Wednesday, after they had disappeared near their home. The girls - aged 14 and 15 - had been in a nearby field because they had no toilet at home.

Hundreds of the girls' neighbors staged a protest by the tree throughout Wednesday, preventing authorities from taking the bodies down until arrests were made.

A subsequent autopsy showed that the girls had been raped and strangled, before they were hanged.

Villagers accused the local police chief - who has now been removed - of having ignored a report by the girls' father that they were missing. The family is part of the Dalit community - also known as the untouchables - which is considered the lowest rung of India's ancient caste system.

rc/jr (AP, AFP, Reuters)