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Protests have erupted across India after police officers, and former and current politicians are named in connection with two unrelated child rape cases, which are now under investigation.
Outraged followed after police released details about the case of Asifa, an eight-year-old Muslim girl who was kidnapped, sedated and gang raped in a Hindu temple in Kathua, in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The perpetrators kept her for days, then murdered her and dumped her body in the forest, police said.
A former government official and an police officer who was investigating her parents' complaint about their missing daughter are named in the police charge sheet.
Others are accused of trying to cover up the crime, and four police officers have been arrested so far, said Deepika Singh Rajawat, a lawyer representing the victim's family.
In a different case, a man died this week in police custody after accusing a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party in Uttar Pradesh state of the abduction and rape of his 16-year-old daughter nine months ago.
Police had failed to investigate allegations against Kuldeep Singh Sengar, a member of the state legislature, but India's Central Bureau of Investigation took over the case on Thursday.
Mr Sengar has denied involvement, but the case has helped galvanise a movement calling for justice for rape victims.
"Both cases have shaken the conscience of the nation, shaken the hearts and souls of people," said Feroze Mithiborwala, an organiser of a protest in Mumbai today.
Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi held a candlelit vigil at India Gate in New Delhi, the same site where thousands of people demonstrated in 2012 against a brutal gang rape in the capital.
"Like millions of Indians, my heart hurts tonight," Mr Gandhi wrote on Twitter after addressing an estimated 5,000 people at Thursday's midnight vigil.
"India simply cannot continue to treat its women the way it does."
"Yet again we've failed as a society," Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar said in a Twitter message.
"Can't think straight as more chilling details on little Asifa's case emerge ... her innocent face refuses to leave me. Justice must be served, hard and fast!"
Citizens' groups are planning further protests in New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata over the next two days, while thousands of people have taken to social media to seek justice for the victims.
Sexual violence remains a taboo in India, and survivors fear stigma or retribution if they report attacks.
But the number of cases that police register has been steadily rising following national outrage at the fatal gang rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in 2012.
Nearly 35,000 rape cases were reported to Indian police and 7,000 convictions were made in 2015, both increasing by about 40 per cent from three years earlier, according to government data.
In both the recent cases, families have had to confront powerful people in their bid for justice.
"The parents of the young girl are very poor and not aware of the law, but they definitely want justice for their daughter," the family's lawyer Mr Rajawat said.
Chandana Chakrabarty, an actor and activist, said the possible involvement of influential people in the child rape cases made it even more important to stand up for justice.
"It is very important to tell the Government that we are not silent and something needs to be done," he said.
AP/Reuters
Topics: sexual-offences, corruption, india
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