India: Rape Survivor's Mother Beaten For Refusal to Withdraw Case

The mother of a rape survivor was allegedly beaten by the father of an accused perpertrator in Uttah Pradesh, for refusing to withdraw the case.

The incident reportedly occurred on 26 May in the Etawah region, the home town of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

According to reports, the accused man, called Sunny, the son of Basant Lal Yadav, entered the victim's house and allegedly raped her on 11 May. He was caught and arrested by the police and a case was registered against him.

Since then, the family have faced a backlash, which reportedly culminated in Basant Yadav's attack on the mother.

According to Zee News, the woman was attacked by four other men, who have not yet been arrested. She was also reportedly stripped in public.

She is said to be in critical condition in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Etawah and according to NDTV, the attack left her speech impaired.

The city, which is on the banks of the Yamuna River, is the home district of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The news comes after two teenage girls, aged 14 and 16, were gang-raped and later hanged from a mango tree in Katra village in Badaun on Wednesday. The young girls were cousins from a low caste.

At least three men, including two police officers, were arrested over the incident. Authorities in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh have said they were still looking for more suspects.

Violence and discrimination against women in India remains deeply entrenched, but women's rights activists have campaigned for further scrunity of sexual violence since the gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus in 2012.

Last year, the government tightened laws on sexual violence across the country after widespread protests in the wake of the attack. According to a 2012 National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) report, rape is the biggest crime committed in India.