A spate of exceptionally brutal rapes in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh has shocked India. Many of the victims were young girls. The BBC's Geeta Pandey reports from Lucknow.

For Sarika, 16, it was like any other day when she went out to the fields for her evening ablutions with her friend Chhaya. It was a cold February evening and it was pitch dark. "I was feeling a little scared so I wanted to get back quickly," she tells me. On the way back, she says, she was attacked by Shivam and three other men from the village.

"Shivam grabbed my hand and asked me to marry him. I said: 'No, how can I marry you? We live in the same village, you are like my brother.' I kicked him and tried to run away. "With the help of his friends, he dragged me to a secluded area and began to assault me with knives and axes. I was conscious for some time, but once they cut me on my head and neck, I fainted. When I became conscious, I was in hospital." Sarika shows me her injuries - a fist-size wound on her scalp, her jaw which has been sewn together, her right hand which had to be re-attached, her right earlobe from where big chunks are missing, and long scars on her arms. Shivam has been arrested, but the others are still free. One told the BBC he had been wrongly accused.

A terrified Sarika and her family have abandoned their home and land in Fatehpur district's Udrauli village to stay with relatives in another village nearly 45km (30 miles) away. Read More