A Dalit woman in Bihar's Buxar district was allegedly gang raped and her child died after they were attacked and thrown in a canal, police said.
The five-year-old child died from drowning, officials have said, adding that one of the seven accused has been arrested in the case. Of the seven accused, only two have been identified so far. The survivor has been admitted to a hospital in the district, about 135 km from Patna, for treatment.
"The woman's medical examination is being done. An FIR (First Information Report) has been filed, while one accused has been arrested. The body of the child has been sent for post-mortem," police officer KK Singh was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"We are confirming other details in the case," he added.
The incident comes amid growing outrage over crimes against women in the country after the brutal torture of a 20-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh's Hathras, who died at a hospital in Delhi last month.
On Sunday, the CBI registered a case in the Hathras incident that reminded many of 2012 gang rape in Delhi. The young woman was allegedly gang raped and assaulted by four "upper caste" men from her village. Her family will appear today before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court.
India recorded an average 87 rape cases every day in 2019 and 4,05,861 cases of crimes against women during the year -- a rise of over seven per cent from 2018 -- according to the data released by the National Crime Records Bureau last month.
