An Indian police officer has been arrested on charges of raping a 13-year-old girl who came to the station to report a gang rape.

Rape, including group rape, has long become commonplace in India. In 2020, the latest year for which crime data is available, 28,379 women and girls were raped in India, on average every 18 minutes, according to the most recent data.

The incident in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state only came to light this week after the victim, a teenager from the Dalit community, the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system, managed to file a police complaint.

In her complaint, she stated that she was gang-raped by four boys who took her to a neighboring state on April 22, but managed to escape a few days later. On April 27, she went to the police station, where she was again raped.

The suspect, who was on the run, was arrested on Wednesday. He was charged under the Child Sexual Offenses Protection Act.

At the same time, the police detained four other people and a relative of the girl, who was reportedly in the police station at the time of the rape. Among those arrested is the head of the rural police station in Lalitpur in the state of Uttar Pradesh, a state police spokesman said.

Twenty-nine other officials who were in the police station at the time of the alleged attack were suspended from their duties.

“Strict action will be taken against those found guilty,” senior police officer Prashant Kumar told Reuters on Thursday. “The rape victim has been admitted to a district hospital for treatment.”

News of the incident sparked outrage on Indian social media. Politicians and activists demanded that urgent action be taken to protect women.

“If police stations are not safe for women, where will they go to complain?” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, a senior member of the opposition Congress Party, tweeted. police stations to make them safe for women?”

Indian rape laws and sentencing rules have been overhauled since the December 2012 gang rape of a female student in New Delhi gained considerable publicity. She later succumbed to injuries sustained during the attack.

The incident made headlines around the world and led to massive protests in Delhi. India has been forced to introduce tough new laws to combat sex crimes. Four men were executed in 2020 after being found guilty of a crime.

In 2018, India introduced the death penalty as a punishment for the rape of girls under the age of 12 in response to public pressure following a series of attacks on children.

But the crime rate remains high: in 2020, the latest year for which crime data is available, 28,379 women and girls were raped in India, on average every 18 minutes, according to the latest official figures.

However, human rights activists argue that this number is actually much higher, since many victims of sexual violence do not go to the police.

The government of Uttar Pradesh has come under particularly sharp criticism.

In 2020, the state made headlines after the death of a 19-year-old woman who reported gang rape and brutal assault. The police and administration secretly cremated her body at night without the consent of her family.

Despite overwhelming evidence, officials continue to insist that she was not raped.