Indian right-wing party Shiv Sena Saturday said filing sexual assault charges has “become a fashion” in an article backing a police officer accused of rape.

The hardline nationalist outfit — a key ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government based in Maharashtra state — threw its support behind a senior state police officer who has been accused of rape by a model and questioned the victim's intentions.

“Cases of charging men with molestation and rape in hi-fi (high) societies to create hype is on a rise now. It has almost become a fashion,” the hardline Hindu nationalist outfit wrote in its mouthpiece, “Saamana” (To Confront).

“After he has served for so many years in the police force, one model now charges DIG (deputy inspector general) Sunil Paraskar with rape and in one night he becomes a villain.

"Such accusations have become good weapons to seek personal revenge."

It added that the Indian judicial system needed to “open its eyes” and protect the innocent because “all the laws in the country favour women so anyone can slap any charge against anyone”.

India toughened sex assault laws following the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in New Delhi in December 2012 which sparked nationwide protests, but the move has done little to stem sex attacks against women.

Last month the alleged rape of a six-year-old girl in a school triggered a series of street protests by angry parents and political activists over the lack of safety for women and children in the country.

(AFP)