Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said a doctor who had reportedly gone to treat the mother of a gang-rape survivor was tied to a tree and brutally assaulted in Gaya.

The incident came to light after RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav posted a video on X (formerly Twitter), showing the doctor, bloodied and in visible pain as police personnel worked to untie him.

In the background, a young girl’s voice can be heard narrating the horror and accusing bystanders: “Maar ke sab nikal gaya, sir. Sab khada ho kar bas muh dekhta hai sir, sharam bhi nahi lagta hai doctor sahab ko maarte hain (They beat him and fled, sir. Everyone just stood there watching, they aren’t even ashamed of beating up a doctor).”

The doctor had come to their home to administer treatment when around five women and three men barged in, beat the family and then dragged the doctor outside, tied him to a tree and thrashed him with iron rods and sticks until he was soaked in blood, according to the rape survivor’s family’s reported statements.

The survivor’s mother reportedly said her daughter had been gang-raped in 2021 and that they had recently recorded their court testimony on May 30. One of the accused was arrested, while others remained at large. The assault on the doctor, she alleged, was an act of retaliation by the accused's family.

Sharing the video of the doctor, Rahul slammed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar. He wrote that even after 20 years in power, the state government had failed to provide security, respect or development in the state.

“Their agenda is to cling to power by making the public helpless. The Nitish government has become a symbol of only the politics of 'power', not of 'justice',” Rahul wrote on X in Hindi, reposting the video of the doctor.

The leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said the time had come to “break this cycle of injustice and take Bihar forward on the path of security, self-respect and dignity”.

“Crime, unemployment and migration – this has become the real identity of the Nitish-BJP government,” he added.

Tejashwi had highlighted the same incident on Wednesday.

“The situation is worse than the Taliban. In Gaya district, the doctor who went to treat the mother of a rape victim was tied to a tree and beaten to a bloody pulp by the accused,” he had posted.

He had added: “In the twenty years of the corrupt NDA government, the police and administration have remained incapable of preventing crime, catching criminals, getting them punished and delivering justice.

“That is why people are taking the law into their own hands as and when they want. There is a chaotic situation in Bihar. The chief minister is unconscious, the government is drunk. Officers and ministers are busy looting the treasury and the administration is in disarray.”

Gaya senior superintendent of police Anand Kumar reportedly confirmed that three women had been arrested in connection with the assault of the doctor. Raids are ongoing to apprehend the remaining seven accused and 10 people have been booked in total under charges including attempt to murder, the police reportedly said.

Waziraganj sub-divisional police officer Sunil Kumar Pandey, however, reportedly said that the attack had no connection to the earlier rape case. Pandey attributed the assault to a longstanding land dispute.

The doctor is currently undergoing treatment at Magadh Medical College in Gaya.