KOLKATA, India - A father whose teenage daughter was gang-raped and later died after being set on fire in eastern India is demanding a federal inquiry into the case, which has renewed public anger over sexual violence in the country.
Hundreds of people protested Friday in the West Bengal city of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, accusing state authorities of failing to protect the family after the 16-yearold girl went to police in October to report she had been raped twice by the same gang.
The state’s urban development minister defended the police response, noting that six suspects had been arrested in the rapes and another two on charges of setting the girl on fire.
The girl reported being gang-raped and left in a field near her home in late October in the Madhyamgram suburb of Kolkata. The next day she was purportedly abducted by the same gang and raped again before being left unconsciousby railway tracks, police said.
The girl’s father, a taxi driver, said last week that his daughter was set on fire on Dec. 23 after being threatened with violence if she did not withdraw her police complaint.
She died from her injuries on Wednesday.
The father is demanding that federal investigators take charge of the case. Neither the girl nor her father is being named by Indian media under laws guarding the identity of rape victims.
Front Section, Pages 9 on 01/05/2014