India rape update: Father demands justice; wants culprits to be hanged from a tree

LATEST: The father of one of two girls gang-raped and lynched in northern India said Sunday he had refused compensation from the state government he blamed for failing to stop the horrendous crime.

The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said he only wanted justice for the men who attacked his daughter and niece, aged 14 and 12, who were found hanging from a tree on Wednesday.

The father made the comments after a string of politicians descended on the dirt-poor village in Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh amid growing uproar over the attacks.

"We have only made one demand from each politician who has visited us in the last two days, we want justice," he told AFP.

"We want the same treatment to the accused that they gave to our daughters -- they should be hung from a tree."

Five people have been arrested over the attack which occurred when the cousins, from low castes, headed into the fields on Tuesday night to relieve themselves because their homes, like most in the village, do not have toilets.

The families of the victims have said police could have "saved" the girls but claimed they refused to help when they found out they were from a lower caste.

"The Yadav government had offered us 500,000 ($8450) rupees... We won't take it, it is the administration that could have saved my daughters and didn't," the father said Sunday.

Rights groups and political opponents have accused the government in Uttar Pradesh, headed by chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, of failing to tackle crimes against women.

Mayawati, a former chief minister of the state who is regarded as the political champion of India's lower castes, became the latest high-profile figure to visit the village on Sunday.

"In all of Uttar Pradesh there is no law and order, there is jungle raj (rule) here," Mayawati said after landing her helicopter in Katra Shahadatganj village, some 200 kilometres (125 miles) southeast of New Delhi.

There is a long history of women and girls from India's lowest castes -- of being sexually abused by people from higher castes.
Uttar Pradesh is deeply divided along caste lines.

India revised its laws on sex attacks in the wake of the December 2012 gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi which triggered outrage, but they have done little to stem the tide of sex attacks.

A lawmaker from the socialist Samajwadi Party which runs the state also visited the families earlier on Sunday.

Rahul Gandhi, who led India's Congress party to a crushing defeat in national elections last month, met the families on Saturday.

Three confess

Three detained suspects have confessed to the gang rape and slaying of two teenage girls who were found hanging from a tree in northern India last week, police said Sunday.

The search for two additional suspects continued Sunday for a fourth day, police officer Atul Saxena said.

India has a long history of tolerance for sexual violence. But the gang rape and killing of the 14- and 15-year-old cousins in Uttar Pradesh state caused outrage across the nation. The two girls, from an impoverished family with no toilets in their home, disappeared Tuesday night after going into fields to relieve themselves.

Saxena said that police were preparing identity sketches of the two missing suspects based on descriptions provided by the arrested suspects in the tiny village of Katra, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from Lucknow, the state capital.

The three suspects detained so far in the attack are cousins in their 20s from an extended family, and they face murder and rape charges, crimes punishable by the death penalty.

Authorities also have arrested two police officers and suspended another two for failing to investigate when the father of one of the teenagers reported the girls missing.

Federal authorities are expected to take over investigation into the crime this week, Saxena said.

Also in Uttar Pradesh state, police on Sunday arrested two people for setting a 16-year-old girl on fire after sprinkling kerosene on her following a land dispute with her father in Kaptanganj, nearly 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Lucknow.

The girl was hospitalized with burns over a quarter of her body, said Mukul Goel, an inspector-general of police.

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