Badaun Sisters' Gang-Rape: Rahul Gandhi Meets Family

Badaun, UP: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today visited Badaun in Uttar Pradesh and met the family of the two teen sisters who were gang-raped in their village on Tuesday night. He also visited the area where the girls were found hanging from a tree on Wednesday morning.

"Their family told me that they don't want compensation, they want justice," he told reporters after the meeting that lasted for nearly half an hour. "There can be no price for a woman's honour," he added. (Watch video here)

Mr Gandhi, who was accompanied by AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Madhusudan Mistry, also said that the family wanted a CBI probe because they had no hope of justice from the Akhilesh Yadav-led government. ('You Are Safe, Aren't You?' Defiant Akhilesh on Being Questioned Over Law & Order)

Amid increasing outrage over the incident, the Uttar Pradesh government today agreed to refer the case to the CBI. Yesterday, it had announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the family.

Rejecting the offer, the father of one of the two girls told NDTV today, "I don't need compensation. I want justice for my daughter. They hanged them, I want them hanged as well."

The two girls, cousins and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their house on the night of May 27 after they stepped out to relieve themselves. They were allegedly abducted by some men from the village. (Hidden in India's Toilet Statistics, the Real Threat of Sexual Violence)

Their family says they could have been saved had the police acted on time. They allege that when they approached the local police for help after the girls went missing, they refused to register an FIR for hours. While they were unsuccessfully trying to convince them, they were informed that the girls were found hanging from a tree. (Badaun Shocker: Is Safety a Distant Dream for India's Daughters?)

Of the seven accused in the case, five have been arrested, two still remain unidentified. Among those taken into custody are two policemen, who have been booked for negligence of duty. The girl's family alleges they had a larger role in the conspiracy.  ('They Could Have Been Saved if Police Acted', says Family)