Gaon Connection’s ground report on the families of gangrape and murder victims from Uttar Pradesh’s Budaun has been awarded as the best English Web Investigative story this year.

Last year, the panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki turned murky when a minor daughter of a Dalit, who was contesting the polls, was allegedly gangraped. The survivor and her family complain that they continue to face threats from the accused who are free on bail. In a series titled 'Twice Cursed', Gaon Connection revisits families of the victims and survivors of rape, now forgotten.

What happens after the last reporter goes away? In a series titled 'Twice Cursed', Gaon Connection revisits the families of the victims of rape, now forgotten. Despite the 'stringent' POCSO Act, the family of two minor girls, who were allegedly gangraped and murdered in 2014 in Budaun, Uttar Pradesh, are still awaiting justice.

Two minor Dalit sisters in Lakhimpur Kheri district were gangraped and murdered yesterday. Their dead bodies were found hanging from a tree. As reflected in the latest data on the crime records in India, the incident is not an isolated case as every third rape victim belonging to the Dalit community is a minor. Also, 12.22 per cent of the total rape cases reported in the country are of women belonging to the Dalit community.