India to set up rape crisis cell
Outrage grew in India yesterday over two shocking rape cases as the new government said it was planning to set up a special crisis cell to ensure justice for victims of sex attacks.
On Thursday it emerged that two teenagers from a low caste had been found hanging from a tree after being gang-raped in their village. A day later police said the father of the chief suspect in another rape case had savagely attacked the mother of his son's alleged victim.
Rights activists and politicians said that the cases highlighted that the authorities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh were "not serious" about tackling sexual crimes.
India revised its laws on sex attacks in the wake of the December 2012 gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi which triggered outrage, but they have done little to stem the tide of sex attacks.
Police in Uttar Pradesh said that three people, including a police constable, had been arrested in connection with a sex attack on the two girls in the village of Budaun earlier this week.
But Maneka Gandhi, India's welfare minister, said that every officer who had been involved in the case should be dismissed.
Gandhi said that she planned to set up a "rape crisis cell" to ensure swift justice for victims of sex crime.
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