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Dubai: A 19-year-old girl in the Indian state of Haryana was brutally gang raped after getting abducted in broad daylight on Wednesday, September 12.

The girl is a class topper and has previously been awarded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for topping the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education, India) board exams.

She was abducted at a bus station by three college students after coming back from a coaching class. She was driven to a field where a dozen men raped her, she said, according to Indian daily, Times of India.

The incident has sparked conversations about women’s safety in India, hate crimes against them and ongoing rape cases surfacing in the country.

Writer Sanjukta Basu, @sanjukta, took to Twitter to express her thoughts: “Rapes are categorised under “sexual offences” in IPC (Indian Penal Code). But this is not a sexual offence, this is a hate crime. ‘How dare a girl in #Haryana top CBSE exam, win awards from President and dream beyond kitchen and maternity ward? She must be punished. Gang rape.’”

Whereas lawyer and politician Somnath Bharti, @attorneybharti, asked Modi and Chief Minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar to take action: “Is this the day women voted BJP governments in Haryana as well as Centre in for? Modi ji and Khattar ji, hope you have read this news. Read it, feel ashamed and do something drastic [so] that no other woman becomes a victim anymore.”

Khattar said today that those found guilty of the crime that had occurred in the Rewari district of Haryana would be punished in accordance with the law, according to The Indian Express, an English-language daily newspaper.

The victim’s mother claimed they faced difficulties registering a First Information Report (FIR). “Police has failed to take any action. We were made to run from pillar to post before our complaint was taken. The FIR was registered at 1 am as police kept citing jurisdiction issues,” she said, according to Press Trust of India (PTI).

“The government talks about ‘Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao’ (Save your daughter, educate your daughter), but is this the price one has to pay for getting our daughters educated? The accused are roaming freely but police has failed to nab them,” she added

On the same sentiment, tweep Anjali Ojha, @ojhaanjali, posted: “Why do men think they can rape and get away with it? Because they are not scared of law, guarded by patriarchal institutions like the police which harasses the victim instead.”

Whereas, Twitter user Deepanshu Mohan, @prats1810, highlighted that women’s safety should be the state’s top priority: “Doesn’t matter whether #Rupee falls or rises; whether #JaitleyMetMallaya. Unless we can’t ensure an environment of love and respect towards women (and other gender divisions) everything is/will be waste…”