Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Prasad Yadav and other Opposition leaders on Tuesday castigated the newly formed Bihar government for inaction over the murder of a young woman from the minority community for resisting molestation, following which police arrested one of the accused over a fortnight after the election-time crime.

Rahul, Tejashwi and the others accused the Nitish Kumar-led BJP-JDU government of brushing the October 30 crime under the carpet for electoral gains. The woman from Vaishali district died on Sunday after battling for life for 16 days.

Rahul’s tweet on Tuesday highlighting the crime and the perceived apathy of the government set off a chain of events that led to the arrest of accused Chandan Kumar Rai within hours. His cousin Satish Kumar Rai and father Vijay Rai are absconding.

All the three belong to the dominant Yadav caste.

The 20-year-old victim, a resident of a village under Desari police station in Vaishali, had gone to discard garbage on the evening of October 30 when the three youths allegedly caught and molested her. She resisted and threatened to complain to her mother and get the accused thrashed, according to the FIR.

Angered by this, Satish took out a bottle of kerosene from his pocket, poured it on her and lit a match. They escaped when the woman started screaming and people rushed in to save her. She was taken to a private hospital in Hajipur and admitted to the emergency ward.

The victim gave her statement to the police the same day. She also said that the accused had harassed her earlier too. She was later shifted to Patna Medical College and Hospital when her condition deteriorated.

The police registered an FIR on November 2, three days after the incident, but no arrests were made. Bihar was in the middle of elections at that time and two of the three phases — on November 3 and 7 — were due.

The woman later succumbed to the burns. Her family members demonstrated with her body in Patna for some time before returning home. They had initially refused to bury her till the culprits were brought to book.

The crime had gone largely unaddressed till Congress MP Rahul tweeted about it on Tuesday.

“Whose crime is more dangerous? Those who indulged in the inhuman act or those who hid it for electoral benefits so that they could lay the foundation of their false ‘good governance’ over this mis-governance,” Rahul asked.

Soon, RJD leader Tejashwi re-tweeted Rahul’s comments, adding: “Where are those who came from Delhi to look for ‘jungle raj’ in LED light in Bihar? The nation wants to know who is the ‘maharaja’ of the jungle raj,” Tejashwi said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said during the campaign that the days of the lantern, the RJD’s poll symbol, were over as LED lights had come.

AIMIM parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi, whose party won an unprecedented five seats in Bihar, also tried to corner the state government.

“Unbelievable cruelty. Prayers for victim & her family. These men ‘punished’ her for resisting molestation. It’s been 15 DAYS & there’s still no action. Men like Satish are emboldened by the fact that there’s never any action. @NitishKumar where’s your “tough on crime” policy now?” Owaisi tweeted.

Under fire, the police swung into action and arrested two of the three accused.

“We arrested the main accused, Chandan Kumar Rai, on Tuesday. The other two also will be arrested soon. All three are related to each other. We have also suspended the Chandpura police outpost in-charge, V.D. Dubey,” Vaishali superintendent of police Maneesh told The Telegraph.

The Vaishali SP said the police were camping in the victim’s village in view of the law-and-order situation, and that an armed guard had been provided to her family.

The victim’s mother and younger sister alleged that musclemen from the village had threatened them with consequences for approaching the police.

“We are continuously being threatened by musclemen from the village. We have no faith in the police as they are also pressurising us to strike a compromise with the accused. There are around 150 police personnel camping in our village and they are not allowing us to go outside,” the mother said.

The family conducted the burial rites on Tuesday after assurances from the district administration that the accused would be brought to justice.

The CPI-ML has announced that it would hold demonstrations across Bihar on Wednesday.