Kathua rape incident: Rahul Gandhi questions PM Modi's silence

Update:

• Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter and questioned prime minister Narendra Modi's silence on the Kathua rape case.

Rahul Gandhi had led a candlelight march to India Gate in New Delhi late Thursday in support of the eight-year-old girl and demanded justice. The march saw scores of people joining Rahul and his sister Priyanka and mother Sonia Gandhi were also in attendance.

Robert Vadra, Congress leaders, and other party workers also took part in the midnight march and raised slogans against the brutality as well as the alleged inaction of the BJP government.

The girl was kidnapped January 10 and taken to a forest, where she was sedated and raped. Her rapists then took her to a temple and locked her, where she was raped by several people for about a week. She was strangulated and killed January 13. Her body was found by a local January 17.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is also likely to sack two BJP ministers from her cabinet Friday, April 12, for rallying behind the people accused of brutally raping and murdering an 8-year-old girl in Kathua. 

Mufti has reportedly already spoken to the senior members of BJP on the matter. 

Chaudhary Lal Singh, minister for forest, and Chander Prakash Ganga, minister for commerce and industries were seen at an event by the Hindu Ekta Manch, which protested the arrest of special police officer (SPO) Deepak Khajuria, one of the accused in the case. The ministers also addressed the rally and spoke up against the arrest of the rape accused, labeling it "jungle raj."

"I don't understand this investigation. Why they have arrested a 14-year-old, a 22-year-old, a 28-year-old and a 37-year-old. How is this possible?" Ganga had said, according to News18.

Singh also supported the protestors and said that the case was being blown out of proportion when there are several women and children who die in the region. "This one girl has died and there is so much of investigation," he said.

"Police is not arresting people who chant anti-India slogans, who burn the tri-colour, but they have arrested people here. I want you to stay put on your resolve and I am with you. I support you for your demand of shifting this case to the CBI."

The gang rape and murder of the girl has outraged the nation with people coming out on the streets to demand justice. The protests bring back memories of the Nirbhaya case, which also saw people coming out in huge numbers to demand justice. 

Kathua rape fact file 

1. In January, retired revenue official Sanji Ram hatches a plan to drive away the Bakarwal tribe from the Rasana area in Kathua.
2. He discusses the matter with his nephew and provoked him to take revenge on the tribe, who had earlier assaulted him.
3. The nephew agrees to kidnap the little girl and shares his plans with his friend Parvesh Kumar.
4. The two then buy local substances to sedate her.
5. Ram and his nephew then abduct the girl and take her to a nearby forest where she is sedated and raped by the nephew, a minor.
6. They then lock her in a temple. The nephew then calls Ram's son Vishal Jangotra in Meerut and asks him if he wants to rape her.
7. Her family file a police complaint and the hunt for the eight-year-old begins
8. Vishal reaches Rasana. He and the nephew rape the girl. The little girl was raped multiple times, even by police officer Deepak Khajuria.
9. The girl is then strangulated and the nephew hits her head with a stone twice. Her body is then dumped in the jungle.
10. The girl's body is found by a local January 17.