A fifth suspect has been arrested in connection to the Badaun gang-rape of two sisters, who were found hanging from a mango tree earlier in the week. Two cops have also been booked for their alleged role in the heinous crime, as well as for being negligent and ignorant on the case.
Villagers, who woke up Tuesday to a horrific day, to find the two cousins hanging from a tree after being allegedly raped, were further aggravated after police refused to file a complaint from the family, after the girls went missing.
On Friday two policemen were arrested and booked for negligence of duty; they will also be probed for their alleged role in the horrific act itself.
As pressure mounted on the government, with the news being picked up as major headlines in almost all the mainstream news publications around the world and as anger and frustration grew both within the village and throughout the nation, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday promised to set up a fast track court to punish the culprits.
This came after the edgy Akhilesh Yadav, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh chose to entangle himself in yet another controversy by counter questioning journalists on Friday when asked about the inexcusable rise in violence against women in his state.
"Aapko toh khatra nahin hua?" (it's not as if you faced any danger?) the Chief minister shot back at a stunned group of journalist.
This comes only a month after his father and Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav had made a controversial statement on the issue of rape saying, "Boys will be boys, why hang rapists?"
Meanwhile, the horror and scale of the gang-rape and murder is slowly getting to the nerve of the public as the father of one of the girls earlier said that the girls could have been saved had the police acted on time.
Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday severely criticised the Uttar Pradesh Police for their 'disgusting behaviour' in the case.
In a post in Twitter, Singh said, "Disgusting behavior of UP Police in Budayun Rape Case. Policemen abetting this crime deserve most severe punishment along with the accused (sic)".
The girls, aged 14 and 15, had reportedly gone missing late on Tuesday night after they stepped out to go to the bathroom. Both were found hanging from a mango tree in an orchard the next morning.
Medical examination revealed that they were both raped and died from hanging.
Their families soon named four men of the village in suspicion of the gang-rape and murder. Two constables were also suspended for conspiring with the suspects and for dereliction of duty after the family members alleged that for many hours after the girls went missing, the local police refused to register a first information report.
It was only after angry villagers protested that a case of rape and murder was reportedly registered by the police against the four suspects.
The incident provoked angry demonstration locally, and outrage elsewhere in a nation that is crippled by frequent incidences of rapes.
Around half of India's 1.25 billion inhabitants are said to have no access to a toilet. Women are vulnerable to assaults as they use fields around village for toilets, before sunlight and after sundown.
