A college student was abducted and raped by three men in India's northern Haryana state while on her way home from a tuition class, the latest sexual attack to shock the country.
The 19-year-old girl was waiting at a bus stop when she was allegedly kidnapped, drugged and raped, police said Friday (14).
"She knows the three accused as they are from the same village (as the girl). They are on the run at the moment," said Anirudh Kumar, a local police official.
Haryana, governed by prime minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, is a largely rural and conservative state.
"Our prime minister says save your daughter and educate them, how can we do that?" the mother of the victim told reporters Friday (14), referring to a 2015 campaign launched by Modi in Haryana called "Save your daughters, Educate your daughters".
"We were made to run from pillar to post before our complaint was taken up.... All we want is justice for our daughter."
Sexual violence is rife in India, with nearly 40,000 rape cases reported in 2016. Activists say this is just the tip of the iceberg.
India has been the focus of international attention since 2012 gang-rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus sparked nationwide protests and highlighted its poor record on sexual violence.
(AFP)
Karan Johar and Smriti Irani