UP: 15-year-old rape survivor dies after being set ablaze

In yet another horrific incident from the state of Uttar Pradesh, a 15-year-old girl, who was from the Dalit community, lost her life on Tuesday allegedly after being set on fire by seven acquaintances of a man who had allegedly raped her three months ago.

The now-deceased girl, who was from Bulandshahr, was allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted by a local man in a guava orchard, near a small farming field owned by her family, in August this year. What followed the heinous crime was legal recourse. However, not long ago, some acquaintances of the accused started intimidating the girl to take back the police complaint.

After the girl’s family declined to back down, some acquaintances of the accused, around 8 am on Tuesday, forced into the teenager’s house and set her on fire after saturating her in petrol while she was with her mother in the kitchen and her father and brother had gone to their farming field. She was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where she succumbed to the injuries on the same day, according to The Indian Express.

In the meantime, police have lodged a named FIR against seven persons of which five have been taken into custody, Santosh K Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, said, adding that two, including the main accused, have escaped and efforts are on to catch them.

This comes after dead bodies of two Dalit sisters were pulled out from a pond in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur. The family of the girls has alleged that they were murdered after a failed rape attempt and has demanded a CBI probe into the matter. Meanwhile, police have rebuffed the allegations, saying that the autopsy reports suggest that they died because of drowning.

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh: 70-year-old woman raped, murdered