India gang rapes: Police sacked over hanged girls

May 31 BBC

Two police officers in India have been sacked for refusing to help search for two missing girls who were later found gang-raped and hanged, authorities say.

One officer was arrested while the other fled. Two of the suspected attackers have also been detained. The government has pledged to set up a fast-track court to prosecute the crime, which took place earlier this week in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

Alleged police inaction sparked outrage in the teenagers’ village.The father of one victim told the BBC he was ridiculed by police when he sought help in finding his missing daughter.

He said that when policemen found out he was from a lower caste, they “refused to look for my girl”.The sacked officers were charged with criminal conspiracy, police said on Friday.

Two of the three men accused of raping and killing the girls have been arrested. The third suspect was on the run, authorities added.Meanwhile, reports have emerged that two more gang rapes of minors occurred in the state this week.The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh reacted angrily when asked about the rising number of rape cases at a news briefing.You are safe, why are you bothered?” Akhilesh Yadav told a journalist.“No other state has the kind of police control room we have here.

If there is any incident, we will take action.”Senior police official Atul Saxena earlier announced there would be a “thorough investigation” into the allegations of caste discrimination by police.Divisions between India's castes run deep, and violence is often used by upper castes to instil fear in lower castes, correspondents say. Although both the victim and the accused in the latest case belonged to a group known as “Other Backward Classes”, the victims were lower in that hierarchy.The girls, two cousins aged 14 and 16, went missing in Badaun district on Tuesday night. They had apparently gone out to relieve themselves as they had no toilet at home.Their bodies were discovered the following day. A post-mortem examination confirmed multiple sexual assaults and death due to hanging.