Rahul observes candlelight vigil at India Gate to protest against Kathua, Unnao rapes

Congress president Rahul Gandhi observed a candlelight vigil on the midnight intervening Thursday (April 12) and Friday (April 13) at the India Gate in New Delhi to register his protest against the growing incidents of crime against women. Rahul, who was joined by several senior Congress leaders, took to Twitter to invite people to join the vigil.

"Like millions of Indians my heart hurts tonight. India simply cannot continue to treat its women the way it does. Join me in a silent, peaceful, candlelight vigil at India Gate at midnight tonight to protest this violence and demand justice," he tweeted earlier today.

Gandhi earlier said the "unimaginable brutality" cannot go unpunished, and called the violence against the child a crime against humanity. He was referring to Kathua gangrape in which an 8-year-old girl was raped and killed.

"The govt is sleeping and so at this time, Congress will have to wake them up. PM had given a slogan 'Beti Padhao, Beti Bachao' & it's in his regime that our girls are being raped. He isn't taking action against his ministers who are trying to save the rape accused," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad told ANI.

All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) earlier today lashed out at the BJP-led government at the Centre over alleged rising cases of crime against women and said that it would hold a nationwide protest on April 17 against Modi government's 'jumla'.

The BJP government is drawing a lot of flak over rape of a minor in Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir, and Unnao rape case, which allegedly involves BJP MLA, Kuldeep Senger.

The Kathua rape and murder was a gruesome act in which an 8 year lost her life. The Jammu police has filed its charge sheet in the case and details the most horrific crime one has seen in recent times. Following the charge sheet, protests had broken out in which some sought to defend the accused persons. The Jammu police say that the primary intention of the murder was to frighten the Bakarwal community to which the girl belongs. The intention was to dislodge the nomadic tribe, the police said.

Meanwhile, An FIR has been registered against rape accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Senger on Thursday at the Makhi police station in Unnao. The case was registered under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (including Section 376 for rape) and POCSO Act. The four-time lawmaker and his brothers allegedly gang-raped the girl in Unnao - who later attempted suicide outside Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's residence in Lucknow on Sunday.