Indian court orders arrest of politician for gang-rape

Outrage across country in protest at gang-rapes of two girls and death of father in police custody

Michael Safi in Delhi
Fri 13 Apr 2018 16.48 BST

An Indian court has ordered the arrest of a ruling party politician accused of gang-raping a teenager and beating her father to death as protests spread over this case and another involving the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.

The high court in Allahabad city on Friday ordered the arrest of Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a member of the Uttar Pradesh state parliament with the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), after days of public outrage over the alleged crime, his defiant response and the apparent apathy of police.

Singh Sengar and his brother Atul Singh Sengar have been accused of raping a 15-year-old girl last June in a town in his constituency near the state capital, Lucknow.

The family tried unsuccessfully for months to persuade police to register a case against the powerful local official until last Tuesday, when the family alleges he and a group barged into their home, molested the girl again, tied her father to a tree and beat him.

The case came to national prominence this week when the teenager tried to burn herself alive outside the residence of the Uttar Pradesh chief minister. The next day, her father, who had been detained by local police after he was alleged assaulted, died in custody.

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