Jaya Bachchan calls for 'lynching' of rapists

Jaya Bachchan, a former Bollywood actress and Member of Parliament, has said the men, who raped and murdered a 27-year-old vet in Hyderabad should be "lynched".

"I know it sounds harsh, but these kinds of people should be brought out in public and lynched," Jaya Bachchan said in the Indian parliament.

Several other MPs from across the political spectrum also condemned the brutal gang-rape and murder.

Protests broke out across India after the victim's charred remains were found a week after her disappearance, reports BBC. 

Police arrested the four men who gang-raped and murdered the woman.

Rape and violence against women remain alarming in India despite widespread public anger at high-profile cases.

On Monday, many MPs demanded to know what action the government planned to take to make the country safer for women, reflecting the anger on the streets in the parliament.

Bachchan, who is very vocal on women's rights issues, led the MPs in demanding justice for the victim.

"I think it is time... The people want the government to give a proper and definite answer," she said.

The country was not safe for children and women, said Vijila Sathyananth, an MP from the southern state of Tamil Nadu. She demanded that the "four men who committed this crime should be hanged before 31 December. Justice delayed is justice denied".

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said "This act has brought shame to the entire country, it has hurt everyone" and that he didn't have appropriate words to "condemn this heinous crime".

Rajnath said tougher laws that were introduced after the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman in Delhi had given hope that crimes against women would decline.

But since that had not happened, Rajnath said, "The government is ready for a discussion in the parliament on the issue of crimes against women and willing to explore stringent provisions in laws to check such incidents."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet commented over the matter.

The woman left home on her bike on Wednesday evening as she had a doctor's appointment.

She called her sister and informed that she had a flat tyre and she was waiting near a toll plaza as a lorry driver had offered her help. 

Since then she could not be reached by mobile phone. A milkman early on Thursday morning discovered her body under a flyover.

Under Indian law, the identity of a rape victim cannot be disclosed even after death. But on Friday, tens of thousands of angry tweets demanded justice, making the woman's name as the top Twitter trend in the country for several hours.

People demanding justice, shared her photo widely on social media.

Thousands of people gathered to protest, demanding death penalty for the culprits at a police station on the outskirts of Hyderabad on Saturday.

There were other protests and vigils for the victim elsewhere in the country as well.

Meanwhile, family members of the victim have turned away from meeting politicians and police officials, demanding action instead. 

Residents of Shamshabad in Hyderabad, where she lived, locked the main gate and held placards saying: "No Media, No Police, No Outsiders - No sympathy, only action, justice."

Three police officers have been suspended in this connection as the victim's family alleged that the police officials had not acted quickly enough when the victim was reported missing.

Officers suggested she may have eloped, relatives told the National Commission for Women, a government body.

Over the past few years, Rape and sexual violence against women have been in focus in India but there has been no sign of abating. 

According to the latest government crime figures, an average of 92 women were raped every day in 2017 with a total number of 33,658.