A man walks past a graffiti depicting a message in protest against rape, in Jammu, April 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mukesh Gupta/Files
NEW DELHI, May 4 (Reuters) - Protests erupted in Andhra Pradesh over the rape of a nine-year-old girl, as anger over the failure of police to stem a series of sex attacks on children boiled over.
Reported rape cases in India have climbed steadily over recent years to around 40,000 in 2016, or about 100 a day, with many more believed to go unreported. Child rape accounts for about 40 percent of the reported cases.
A mob blocked highways on Thursday and sat on railway tracks near Guntur demanding public punishment for a rickshaw puller accused of the attack.
The crowd attacked the accused's house and thrashed his son, media said.
On Friday, the accused, said to be around 55, was found hanging in a wood and police said he had likely committed suicide.
Several cases of sexual assault of children have come to light in recent weeks from different parts of the country, leading to an outpouring of anger.
The government introduced the death penalty for the rape of girls younger than 12 last month after a particularly gruesome case of rape and murder of a Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir state.
Police superintendent Venkata Appala Naidu said the girl who had been assaulted in Guntur was recovering in hospital.
Registered cases of sexual violence have been rising despite the national outrage that followed the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
HC seeks CBI response on rape-murder convict's plea to write exam
New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) The Delhi High Court on Friday asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi government to file a response on a plea by Santosh Kumar Singh, serving a life term for rape and murder of a law student in 1996, seeking parole to write the LLM examination.
Justice Mukta Gupta issued notice to the CBI and the state government on Singh's plea and listed the matter for further hearing on May 16.
Singh's counsel told the court that his client had been pursuing Master of Laws and the examination is going to start from May 19.
Earlier also Singh was granted parole to write examinations.
Singh, the son of a senior police officer, and then a law student in Delhi University had raped and strangled a 26-year-old law student at her Delhi home in January 1996.
On December 3, 1999, the trial court had acquitted him, but the Delhi High Court had on October 27, 2006 held him guilty of rape and murder and awarded the death sentence.
On October 6, 2010, the Supreme Court upheld his conviction but reduced the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Minor girl raped, burnt to death in Jharkhand
Ranchi, May 4 (IANS) In a horrific incident, a 16-year-old girl was gang raped and subsequently burnt to death in front of her family members in Jharkhand's Chatra district on Friday.
According to local media reports, the girl was abducted by four youths from near her house and raped. The family members had gone to attend a marriage.
The incident took place in Rajakendua village under Itkhori police station in Chatra district -- around 160 km from state capital Ranchi.
The issue was raised in the village Panchayat on Friday morning. The Panchayat asked the accused to pay Rs 50,000 to the victim to settle the matter.
Enraged over the Panchayat diktat, the four youths went to the house of the girl and thrashed the family members and burnt her to death. The family members have filed a case at the Itkhori police station.
The four youths have been named accused in the case and a manhunt has been launched to nab them.
In another rape incident in Palamau district, the village Panchyat asked the rape accused to pay Rs 15,000 to settle the issue.
A minor girl was allegedly raped by her maternal uncle in the district on Wednesday night when she had gone to her maternal uncle's house to attend a marriage.
The victim returned home on Thursday and informed her family members. The issue was taken to the village Panchayat which asked the maternal uncle to pay the fine.
