An Indian court has sentenced five men to death for the gang-rape and murder of a teenager, as well as the murders of her father and baby niece.

The crime was committed in January 2021 when the men offered the girl and her family, all members of a disadvantaged tribal community in the central state of Chhattisgarh, lifts on their motorbikes while they waited for public transport.

They later clubbed the teenager's father to death when he tried to stop the rape and killed his three-year-old niece, prosecutor Sunil Kumar Mishra told AFP.

The last victim was found unconscious by the villagers a few days later and died on the way to the hospital.

Five men were found guilty of rape and triple murder “and sentenced to death,” Mishra said on Thursday, the day after the court announced the verdict.

A sixth man “was found guilty of criminal association, but his involvement in the rape was not proven, so he was sentenced to prison for the rest of his life for the murders,” it added.

India imposes the death penalty, although in practice it is rarely carried out.

In 2022, an average of about 90 rapes were reported a day in the country of 1.4 billion people, but activists say many more are underreported.

Court in East Calcutta sentenced a man to life imprisonment This week after he was found guilty of raping and murdering the 31-year-old doctor last year, the doctor's family wept, saying they were “shocked” by the verdict and hoped his killer would be hanged.

The discovery of his bloodied body in a state hospital in August inspired nationwide outrage and protests to the chronic problem of violence against women.

The gruesome nature of the attack has drawn comparisons to an attack 2012 gang rape and murder A young woman on a Delhi bus that also sparked weeks of nationwide protests was four men convicted of the bus attack implemented in March 2020.

More than four dozen men were arrested in the case last week repeated sexual abuse of a teenagerwho said she was targeted by as many as 60 men over several years in the southern state of Kerala.

The girl's childhood friend is among the men accused in the attacks, along with neighbors and family friends, police told CBS News affiliate network. BBC News. According to Indian media, the accused include at least five students of his college and former classmates of his school. News minute.

The alleged abuse came to light last month when a team of counselors from a government program visited her home.