NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A group of men set ablaze a 23-year-old rape victim on her way to court in northern India on Thursday, sparking a wave of outrage and public shame over crimes against women, police said.
Police said the rape suspect was among the gang members who burned the victim.
Last week, thousands of Indians protested in several cities after a 27-year-old veterinarian was raped and killed near the southern city of Hyderabad.
Protesters and members of parliament are pressing the courts to speed up sentencing in rape cases and are demanding tougher penalties.
DS said Nigi, a doctor at the civil hospital in Lucknow, capital of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said the woman who was burned this morning was in critical condition.
Police said the victim was on her way to catch a train in the Unaw district to attend a hearing when the perpetrators threw kerosene and set it ablaze.
"According to the victim, five people were involved in setting it ablaze, including the defendant in the rape case," Vikrant Fair, a police official in Unaw, told Reuters.
The five men were arrested, Uttar Pradesh state police said in a tweet on Twitter.
Police documents showed that the woman filed a complaint with the UNAU police in March saying that she had been raped at gunpoint on 12 December 2018.
A police officer said. JK. Bhagat in Lucknow The alleged rapist was later imprisoned before being released on bail last week.
Uttar Pradesh is India's most populous state and is known for its poor record of crimes against women, with more than 4,200 rapes reported in 2017, the highest in the country.