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June 5, 2014, 3:16 PM GMT / Updated June 5, 2014, 3:58 PM GMT

A senior politician from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party has been quoted saying that sometimes rape is "right," sparking renewed outrage about rampant sexual assault in that country.

"This is a social crime which depends on men and women. Sometimes it's right, sometimes it's wrong," Babulal Gaur, home minister of Madhya Pradesh state, was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times. "Until there's a complaint, nothing can happen."

Gaur is from Prime Minister Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Modi has so far been silent about the May 26 gang rape and murder of two teenage girls in the north of the country. Three men later confessed to the attacks, which ended with the girls being hung from a mango tree.

The 14- and 15-year-old cousins were from a poor family without operating toilets in their home and disappeared after going into fields to relieve themselves.