NEW DELHI • A nine-month-old baby died after she was thrown out of a moving auto rickshaw by men accused of gang-raping her mother, police said, in the latest case of sexual violence in India.

Police said they registered a case of murder and gang rape after the alleged assault last Monday in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi.

Gurgaon police commissioner Sandeep Khirwar said: "We are interrogating several people and should be able to progress further in the case ... including making possible arrests." The baby died of head injuries and the mother's age is estimated to be 19 or 20, he said.

The woman told police she was assaulted after getting into an auto rickshaw with her daughter at around midnight to travel to her parents' home in Gurgaon, in northern Haryana state.

There were already two men on board, along with the driver.

India has a gruesome rape record, with its capital New Delhi registering 2,199 rape cases in 2015 - an average of six a day.

Nearly 40,000 rape cases are reported every year; the real number is thought to be much higher, with victims wary of how their complaints will be dealt with or the stigma attached to sexual crimes.

India strengthened laws on such crimes after the fatal gang rape of a Delhi student in 2012 caused global outrage.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE