A father in India has chopped off the hands of a man who was accused of raping his seven-month-old daughter.

Parminder Singh, 25, is said to have beaten the 17-year old man, tied him to a tree, and hacked off both his hands, before leaving him abandoned next to a canal.

The younger man was accused of molesting a baby in 2014, after allegedly being caught in the act by the baby's mother.

The father sought revenge against the 17-year-old (pictured after the attack) who is accused of raping his seven-month-old baby daughter

The teenager had both hands hacked off, and was left by a canal, but he survived and is in a stable condition

The man is pictured shirtless, with his arms bandaged where his hands were cut off, and with bloodied jeans

Police sent him to a juvenile remedial home as he awaited trial.

On April 19, he was making a court appearance in the Bathinda district of Punjab, when the baby's father apparently lured him away by offering him an out of court settlement.

Swapan Sharma, a senior police officer of Bathinda said: 'He (the father) took him near a dried up canal, beat him up badly and then tied him to a tree and finally hacked his hands off.

'Locals alerted police and we rushed to the spot. We picked him up, his hands, and took him to the hospital.'

He confirmed the man was in a stable condition, but said: 'There is nothing below the wrists now.'

The police said they were now hunting for the father, a brick kiln labourer, who they will charge with attempted murder.

The incident happened in the Bathinda district of the Punjab region of India

Sexual assault is a prevalent problem in India, with 24,923 cases of rape reported in the country in 2012 alone.

Nearly one in three rape victims are under the age of 18.

The country suffers from a slow, and often corrupt legal justice system, which leads many people to turn to vigilante justice.