Rohtak: Haryana police have arrested seven people in connection with the rape and murder of a 28-year-old mentally-challenged woman from Nepal that took place on the Rohtak-Hisar highway.

 
The deceased had been residing with her sister for the past three months and was undergoing treatment at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS).

The 28-year-old woman's naked body was found in a field near the highway in Rohtak, half eaten by animals and with key organs missing. The police said objects had been inserted into her; sticks, stones and condoms were stuffed into her private parts.

The brutality and savagery given to the Nepalese woman has spurred comparisons to the 2012 gang-rape and torture of a young medical student in a moving bus, which led to a massive public outcry and tougher laws to deter rapists.

However, police on Sunday claimed to have got 'vital clues' in the case. Without disclosing details about the said clues, ADGP (law and order) Muhammad Akil said the "culprits will soon be arrested."

Chairperson of the Haryana women's commission Kamlesh Panchal, meanwhile, visited the victim's family and said she would demand exemplary punishment for the perpetrators of the crime.

Panchal told the family members of the deceased that the commission has taken note of the issue and will demand that the accused be nabbed at the earliest, tried and hanged.

The commission also assured the family that they will look into the allegations of the police indifference in probing the matter.

The crime has triggered dissent among the Nepali community. Members of the Mool Pravaha Akhil Bharat Nepali Ekta Samaj and Pravasi Nepali Sangh Bharat organised a candlelight vigil and protest at Mansarovar Park in Rohtak.

The victim's sister led a candlelit vigil in Rohtak on Saturday and accused police of not doing enough to trace the attackers. "Police have been slow to arrest the perpetrators, they should be arrested immediately and hanged. I want justice for my sister, they have been brutal to her, it's just spine chilling," the sister has said.

The woman, who was living with her sister at Chinyot Colony in Rohtak while undergoing treatment at a hospital, was reported missing on February 1. After her mutilated body was found three days later, an autopsy confirmed brutal rape.