[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA2-23Ix_AQ[/youtube]

The protesters, many of them women, were demonstrating outside the office of state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav.

New rapes were reported from Meerut, Firozpur, Fatehpur and Bareilly where a 22-year-old woman was killed after her attackers gang-raped her and forced acid down her throat. Sex crimes in Uttar Pradesh have hit international headlines following the rape and hanging of two girls, aged 12 and 14, who had gone out to relieve themselves at night in Katra Saadatganj village, Badaun district, last week.

Reports also came in on Monday that a woman was allegedly gang-raped and thrown in a ditch in Sofipur village under Basai Mohammadpur police station of Firozabad district. She was spotted by police and admitted to the local government hospital.

The rapes in Badaun have laid bare the reality of caste atrocities in the hinterlands of India. Four of the five suspects are from the Yadav community, a powerful land-owning caste that holds political sway in Uttar Pradesh. The victims were from the Shakyas, by tradition peasant farmers who are often vulnerable to exploitation by the Yadavs.

Five people, including two police constables Sarvesh Yadav and Chatrapal Yadav, have been arrested in the case so far. Three other accused are Pappu Yadav, Awadesh Yadav and Urvesh Yadav of the same village.