Police hunt for five who gang-raped, set woman on fire in UP

MEERUT: Police said on Sunday they were looking for five people accused of gang-raping and setting afire a 35-year-old woman after allegedly dragging her to a temple in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district.

Additional director general (ADG) of police (Bareilly zone) Prem Prakash said the police had detained four people related to the accused and were interrogating them. He said the post-mortem report confirmed that the woman had been raped and died of burn injuries.

“Three police teams are being helped by the local intelligence unit (LIU) and surveillance teams to look for the accused. I am personally monitoring the operation and the accused will be arrested soon,” Prakash said.

The five men are accused of barging into the woman’s home early on Saturday and raping her before killing her, the police said.

The ADG said the accused were distantly related to the family of the woman. “All the five accused have been identified… Our teams are raiding their possible hideouts,” he added.

Denying the claim of the victim’s husband that she tried to connect to the ‘Dial 100’ service but got no response, Prakash said: “We have examined the call record of the woman’s phone, which did not show any calls to the Dial 100 service. We have also cross-checked it with Dial 100 headquarters in Lucknow.”

Circle officer, Gunnaur, Akeel Ahmad said a case of gang rape, murder and destruction of evidence had been registered against the men on Saturday.

The victim’s family alleged that the police initially tried to hush up the matter but swung into action when they provided the recording of the call that the victim had made to her cousin after the alleged gang rape.

The victim’s husband, a labourer, on Saturday lodged a police complaint that five men barged into his house when his wife and 14-year-old daughter were sleeping. He said he was in Ghaziabad and his son had gone to a neighbouring village when the incident took place.

He said when the men left after raping her, his wife tried to call him over the phone but could not contact him. She also tried ‘Dial 100’ service but her call remained unanswered. She then called up her cousin and informed him about the incident. “In the meantime, the men returned with kerosene and dragged her to a nearby temple, where they set her afire,” he added.

He said on getting information about the incident, he reached the village in the morning. “I found my daughter but my wife was missing. We rushed to the temple, where I found her half-burnt body,” he said in his complaint.