Parents found daughter raped, hanged from a tree in AP

Yeturu: Heartbroken parents searching for their missing 16-year-old daughter find her body hanging from a tree after she had been kidnapped and gang-raped by three men in India, as reported dailymail.

Rape has become the fourth most common crime against women in India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau 2013 annual report, 24,923 rape cases were reported across India in 2012. Several rape cases in India received widespread media attention and triggered protests since 2012. This led the Government of India to reform its penal code for crimes of rape and sexual assault.

The 16-year-old girl was walking home from school in the village of Yeturu in Andhra Pradesh state when she was attacked.

Local media reports say she was dragged into a rickshaw by three men on the outskirts of the village, which is about 50 miles north of Chennai.

She was then gang-raped but it is not clear how she came to be hanging from the tree.

Her parents reportedly went looking for her when she failed to return from school and found her body hanging from a tree.

Police spokesman Sathya Kishore said they had identified three suspects from the neighbouring village of Vibharinthalapadu.

Mr Kishore said the police were investigating the incident but had not yet made any arrests.

In recent years the number of reported rapes in India has been on the rise and authorities have come under increasing pressure to make sure they do not go unpunished.

According to the Indian government, at least one in 10 rape victims in the country is under-age.

There has been a change in attitudes in the country in recent years, triggered by the horrific gang-rape and murder in 2012 of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh in Delhi.

One of her attackers died in prison and four others are appealing against their death sentences.

In May 2014 two sisters were found hanging from a tree in Uttar Pradesh state and it was reported they had been gang-raped and murdered. But six months later the police ruled they had not been attacked and had simply committed suicide.

There has been a change in attitudes in the country in recent years, triggered by the horrific gang-rape and murder in 2012 of 23-year-old student Jyoti Singh in Delhi.