More rape cases jar India

India's grim record of failing to protect women worsened on Monday as details emerged of a gang rape last week in Haryana state, reminiscent of the fatal mutilation of a medical student on a bus in 2012 in New Delhi.

Haryana state director general of police Yash Pal Singal told the news agency AFP on Monday that the eight accused had "confessed" and a ninth suspect was still on the run.

The 28-year-old mentally-ill victim's mutilated body was found on a field near Rohtak city last Wednesday after she had gone missing while staying with her sister to receive treatment at a local clinic.

Forensic specialist SK Dattarwal told NDTV television Monday that he had never seen such a "horrific case in 30 years."

Police slow to investigate?

Over the weekend, the woman's sister joined hundreds of protestors who held candlelight vigils and accused police of being too slow to investigate.

Meanwhile in northern India, police said they were searching for a man who had raped a Japanese student after taking her on a motorbike sightseeing tour around Jaipur.

She was left on a roadside. Villagers heard her crying and called police.

Sunday's rape was the second involving a Japanese woman in India in recent months.

In December, a 22-year-old Japanese research scholar fled her captors in Bihar state after being held for nearly three weeks. Six men were later arrested.

Shortly after his inauguration last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi condemned violence against women.

Blows to tourist industry

Britain and France revised their travel advisories for India last January, warning visitors about the risk of sexual attacks.

Jaipur lies in Rajasthan, a state which draws thousands of tourists every year to palaces and forts built by its former Maharaja rulers.

The 2012 gang rape on a bus in New Delhi sparked a global outcry and a tightening of India's laws but with few signs that sexual crimes have abated.

ipj/rc (dpa, AFP, epd, AP)