Rape victim dies
Set ablaze after one of accused attackers set free
UNNAO — A 23-year-old rape victim set on fire by a gang of men, which included her alleged rapists, has died in a New Delhi hospital, prompting protests from opposition leaders who blamed the ruling party for failing to check incidents of violence against women.
The woman was on her way to board a train in Unnao district of northern Uttar Pradesh state to attend a court hearing over her rape when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire Thursday, according to police.
She was airlifted to New Delhi for treatment later that day.
The attack, the second major case of violence against women in the past two weeks, has sparked public outrage in India.
The woman died Friday after suffering a cardiac arrest, Dr. Shalabh Kumar, head of burns and plastic department at New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital told Reuters.
“She had 95 per cent burns,” he said, adding that the woman’s wind pipe was burnt and “toxic and hot fumes” had filled her lungs.
The woman had filed a complaint with Unnao police in March alleging she had been raped at gunpoint on Dec. 12, 2018, police documents showed.
The woman named two local men, one of them was arrested by police, the other absconded.
Having been subsequently jailed, the alleged rapist was released last week after securing bail, police officer S.K. Bhagat said in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
On Thursday, the rape victim was seized by five men, including the two people she had named in her complaint, and beaten, stabbed and set on fire, local media reported citing her statement to police.
Still ablaze, she walked nearly a kilometre, seeking help before finally calling the police herself, according to Aaj Taj TV news channel.
All five of the accused have been arrested and are in 14-day judicial custody, Vikrant Vir, superintendent of police, Unnao, told Reuters.
A fast-track court would hear the case and the guilty wouldn’t be spared, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said.