Several Opposition parties criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government on Wednesday over the gangrape and murder of a 50-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun district, reported PTI.

The incident took place on January 3 night after she went to a local temple, but an first information report was filed only on Tuesday evening after the woman’s postmortem report revealed injuries in her genitalia. The police have filed a case against two men, including a priest. Her husband said that the accused dropped her home in car, claiming that she had fallen into a well. According to him, she died a few minutes later. However, the woman’s son said his mother was dead when the men dropped her home.

Reacting to the incident, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi accused the Adityanath-led government of being indifferent towards the security of women in the state. “In Hathras, the government administration did not listen to the voice of those pleading,” she tweeted in Hindi. “The government saved officials and suppressed the victim’s voice. In Budaun, the police station officer did not listen to the one pleading and did not even examine the place of the incident. There is something wrong in the UP government’s intentions on women’s security.”

Her party colleague and Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called the incident “horrific” and “shameful for humanity”. “How many more Nirbhayas?” he tweeted. “How much more of this monstrosity? When will the Adityanath government wake up? Where are our awakened journalists?”

The Samajwadi Party said the incident should shame humanity, and demanded strict punishment for the accused. “Fifty-year-old anganwadi assistant, who had gone to offer prayers at a temple in Budaun, gang-raped and subsequently murdered,” the tweet on the party’s official account read. “Those in power who only make false claims of women security should drown themselves. The guilty should be punished at the earliest, and justice should prevail.”

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati called the incident “sad and condemnable”. “The state government should take this incident seriously and ensure strict punishment to the culprits so that such incidents do not recur, this is the demand of the BSP,” she tweeted.

A preliminary inquiry has found that the local police station in charge was negligent in handling the case. The senior superintendent of police said he had ordered the suspension of the officer concerned.

The National Commission of Women on Wednesday took cognisance of the incident. NCW Chairperson Rekha Sharma has written to Uttar Pradesh director general of police seeking immediate intervention in the matter. The commission also sought a detailed action taken report at the earliest.