Gang rape of young girls in India has skyrocketed since last year. The recent rape of young girls in Mumbai and now in Lucknow is causing massive ripple effects. Young girls are outright afraid to go out alone especially in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

In an incident that is creating ripples in the city, a minor girl working as a domestic help was allegedly tortured and gangraped by three men who forced her into their car while she was on her way back from work.

Though the incident took place on Monday, it came to light only on Wednesday evening when her family approached police asking for action and protection against death threats.

According to a police complaint, the 15-year-old was dragged into the car while returning home around 8 pm on Monday. She was gagged and driven to a secluded spot where she was molested and tortured with cigarette butts. She was then forced at gunpoint to accompany the three boys to a vacant house where she was raped.

"My screams were drowned in the loud music that was deliberately played by the boys," she has told the police. Though the police have confirmed cigarette burns on her body, she has complained that personnel at the Aashiyana police station, where she went to after being dumped by the men on Tuesday, did not have her medically examined.

"Only after I gave them an undertaking that I would not talk about the incident to anyone did they agree to set me free," she has alleged.

Commenting on the police role, district police chief Navneet Sikera: "All I can assure you is that our men are on the job and we will track down the culprits at all costs." And while the wheels of justice get moving, the victim's father, a small-time waste-seller, has been doing the rounds of various newspaper offices to mobilise public opinion. He has apparently told the police that he was being intimidated and offered allurements to withdraw the case.

Opposition parties, including the Congress, have condemned the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government for the increasing incidents of crime in the state.

"When such is the state of affairs in the state capital, you can imagine the lawlessness that prevails in other parts of the state," said a Congress leader, citing crime bureau reports showing that as many as 309 minor girls were raped in the state during 2002.

The incident is one more blot in a state where three to four women are raped a day and where official statistics recorded 1,425 rapes in 2003.