14-year old girl gang-raped in India’s UP state

Accused lured the teenager to a deserted place while she was returning home from school

In yet another horrifying incident of sexual assault, a 14-year-old girl was gang-raped in India while she was returning home from school.

The incident took place in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh state, Indian media reported on Saturday.

According to police officials, a man hailing from victim’s village approached the teenager while she was going home and lured her to a nearby field.

Two of his associates were already present at the deserted place, where they gang-raped the victim.

Hearing the victim screaming for help, a farmer working in the field rushed to help her but the accused had fled the scene by the time he arrived at the crime scene.

Also read: Girl, 9, raped and murdered in India's New Delhi

Police lodged a first information report (FIR) against the three suspects and the medical examination of the victims has been conducted.

Safety of women and girls has been a major political issue in India since the 2012 gang-rape and murder of a 23-year-old student on a bus in Delhi shocked the world.

There were more than 32,000 rape cases – almost four an hour – recorded in India in 2019 alone, according to the latest government data, though experts say those figures are likely to be very conservative due to the stigma involved.

There were more than 100,000 kidnappings of women, data show, and a third of them with the aim of forcing them into marriage.