India Police Probe Suspected Rape, Hanging of Teenager

India police are investigating the suspected rape and hanging of a low-caste teenage girl, an officer said Thursday, a grim reminder of a similar case last year in the same state.

The 16-year-old, from India's lowest Dalit social caste, previously known as "untouchables", was found hanging from a mango tree on Tuesday morning in northern Uttar Pradesh state.

Police arrested two youths from the girl's village on Thursday after her father alleged they had raped and murdered his daughter in Kheri district, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) from state capital Lucknow.

"The girl went missing on Monday and on Tuesday morning her body was found hanging from a mango tree," deputy superintendent of police Mohammed Ibrahim told AFP.

"We are investigating on the basis of the father's complaint of rape and murder," said Ibrahim, who is in charge of the area where the incident occurred.

He said police were waiting for the post mortem results on the girl's body to confirm if she had been raped.

The case comes a year after two girls from a low caste were also found hanging in the same state. Their families claimed that they had been gang-raped before being lynched.

The families said the cousins, aged 12 and 14, had been attacked after they went outside after dark to relieve themselves because their ramshackle homes did not have a toilet.

Police arrested five men from a higher caste but federal investigators later concluded that the girls had committed suicide and were not raped as previously thought.

That case reignited anger about India's treatment of women, following the public outrage that erupted over the fatal gang-rape of a student on a moving bus in Delhi in December 2012.

That attack led to tougher laws for rapists and other sex offenders and new policies for police dealing with the large numbers of assaults against women.