Police have arrested a 40-year-old man on Wednesday for allegedly raping his teenage daughter for four years in western India.

Police officer S.B. Patil said the man was living with his 14-year-old daughter after separating from his wife and two sons seven years ago in Thane city near Mumbai, India's financial capital.

The girl approached her neighbours who helped her in filing a police complaint against her father this week, Patil said.

Police arrested her father on Wednesday, he said.

Rising incidents of brutal sexual assaults against girls and women have galvanized India where such crimes had been quietly accepted in the past.

The government has increased punishment for rape of an adult to 20 years in prison.

India's government also approved the death penalty for people raping children under the age of 12.