NEW DELHI, Jan 3: Eighteen days after the horrific gang-rape and fatal torture of a 23-year-old woman in a Delhi bus, police filed criminal charges against her killers on Thursday but India’s embarrassment over the insecurity of women across the country continued unabated as news came in of the arrest of a Congress leader in Assam for alleged molestation of a woman in the north-eastern state.

The Delhi Police filed a charge-sheet in a court here against five men arrested in the case, slapping on them murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges. The sixth accused is a juvenile and the Juvenile Justice Board will conduct proceedings against him.

The Delhi victim was gang-raped and brutally assaulted in a moving bus in the capital. She died on Dec 29 in a Singapore hospital.

Press Trust of India said the five accused, Ram Singh, his brother Mukeshand their accomplices Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur had been charge-sheeted for the offences of murder, gang-rape, attempt to murder, kidnapping, unnatural offences, dacoity, hurting in committing robbery, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the ruling Assam Congress leader who allegedly raped a woman in lower Assam’s Chirang district was thrashed by angry villagers before being arrested.

“People raised an alarm late last night after Congress leader Bikram Singh Brahma allegedly raped a woman at Santipura village and gheraoed him,” Chirang Superintendent of Police Kumar Sanjeev Krishna was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Mr Brahma, who is the Baksa district Congress Committee chairman and Congress coordinator of Bodoland Territorial Council, was beaten up by men and women who ripped of his clothes. He was later handed over to police, reports said.