A 17-year-old is battling for her life after being raped and set alight in the second such case to shake India in days.
The teenager was attacked on the same day and in the same eastern state of Jharkhand as a 16-year-old who was raped and burned to death.
"The girl has suffered 70 per cent first-degree burns. There is a chance that she will survive," Shailendra Barnwal, police superintendent of Pakur district, told AFP.
Police have arrested a 19-year-old man who lives in the same neighbourhood as the latest victim.
"He poured kerosene on the girl and set her on fire," Barnwal said.
On Saturday, police arrested 15 people suspected of kidnapping, raping and burning to death a 16-year-old girl, the latest in rising crimes against women in India despite laws being strengthened.
Dhanu Bhuiyan was named by police as the "main suspect" in the crime.
A local village chief was also among those arrested after he initially punished Bhuiyan for the girl's rape by ordering him to do 100 sit-ups and pay a 50,000 rupee ($750) fine following the rape.
Police say Bhuiyan was furious about the punishment and then he and his accomplices allegedly attacked the girl's parents and set fire to the house with the girl inside on Friday.
Indian relatives mourn following the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl on May 3. Source: Getty
The two cases have shone a spotlight on the treatment of rape in India, where some 40,000 cases were reported in 2016.
The country had already been agonising over the brutal gang-rape and killing of an eight-year-old girl in Jammu and Kashmir state, which is to be raised in the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Eight Hindus have been accused over the abduction, repeated rape and killing of the Muslim girl.
Hindu activists have staged angry protests claiming that the police inquiry was biased.
The Supreme Court is to give a ruling on whether the flashpoint trial should be moved away from Jammu, a Hindu-majority region of the Muslim-dominated state.
The debate has been heightened further by new police figures indicating that more than five women were raped every day in the Indian capital this year.
As many as 578 rape cases were reported up to April 15, against 563 in 2017 during the same period, police said.
Indian authorities have faced renewed pressure to act over sexual assault since the killing of the Muslim girl in Jammu.
Amid mounting outrage, the government has changed the law to allow execution for child rapists.
