The recent gangrape of a woman and her teenage daughter near a highway close to Bulandshahr city in Uttar Pradesh could be a political conspiracy, according to state minister Azam Khan. "We need to investigate whether this is a conspiracy by opponents who want to defame the government," Khan said.

Speaking about the incident that took place on Friday night, the minister said, "For votes, people can stoop to any level. There can be a Muzaffarnagar, a Shamli and Kairana...why not this? For power, politicians can murder people, trigger riots, kill innocent people, so the truth has to be found out."

The comment drew sharp criticism from opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, reported IANS. Party general secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak said, "If you cannot bring succour to the victims, one should not add insult to injury." The saffron party has demanded an apology from Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav for Khan's remark.

The father and husband of the survivors said his family will commit suicide if they don't get justice within the next three months. The incident took place when the family was travelling to Shahjahanpur to attend a relative's funeral and had set off from Sector 68 at midnight. A highway gang of robbers surrounded their car and forced all of them into a nearby field. There, they sexually assaulted the woman and the 15-year-old girl. The assailants carried out the attack barely 100 meters from a police post. However, the police allegedly took hours to reach the spot.