Unnao rape victim dies after being burnt alive

The 23-year-old Unnao rape victim who was airlifted to Delhi and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 90 per cent burns after being set on fire has died, hospital sources said. After battling for life for almost 40 hours, the woman died following a cardiac arrest at 11.40 pm on Friday night, they said. “Despite our best efforts, she did not survive,” said Dr Shalab Kumar, head of burns and plastic surgery department at the hospital.

The 23-year old Unnao rape victim, who was airlifted to Delhi and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 90 per cent burns after being set on fire, died following a cardiac arrest at 11.40 pm on Friday.

“Despite our best efforts, she did not survive,” said Dr Shalab Kumar, Head of Burns and Plastic Surgery Department at the hospital. “Her condition deteriorated towards the evening. She had a cardiac arrest around 11:10 pm. We tried to resuscitate her, but she passed away around 11:40 pm,” he said.

Her death led to sorrowful and angry reactions from her family members, who demanded justice by killing the accused either by imitating the Hyderabad ‘encounter’ or by hanging them to death.

While Opposition leaders accused the Uttar Pradesh government of failing to provide security and justice to those brutalised by sexual violence in the state, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath gave the assurance that the case would be pleaded in a fast-track court to provide speedy justice to the deceased woman’s family.

Following a post-mortem examination, her body was taken to her native village in Unnao’s Bihar area.

Stating that the perpetrators responsible for the victim's death have no right to live, her father and brother demanded that they either be chased by police and killed in an encounter or be hanged to death. “I want to see the accused persons being chased and shot dead,” the woman’s father said at their house in Unnao. “I do not want money or any other kind of help. I want to see that the accused are chased and shot dead like the Hyderabad encounter or hanged to death,” he said.

The woman’s brother also reiterated the demand to kill the accused either in an encounter or by hanging, telling reporters here that his sister will get justice when all those responsible for her death “will go to the place where she has gone.”

As political reactions to the sensitive Unnao case poured in, UP Adityanath termed the victim’s death as “extremely sad” and conveyed his condolences to the aggrieved family.

“All the accused persons have been arrested. The case will be taken to a fast-track court and punishment will be given,” he said in a statement.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who rushed to Unnao to meet the victim’s family, took to twitter to blame the state government for its “hollow law and order mechanism” apart from society’s collective failure that prevented justice from being delivered to the woman.

“Why the victim of Unnao gangrape case was not given security keeping in mind an earlier incident of Unnao? What action has been taken on the police official who refused to register an FIR? What steps are being taken by the government to stop crime against the women, which take place on a daily basis?” she tweeted.

Priyanka Gandhi was referring to another such alleged attack in the district in July when the car in which a woman, who had accused BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her, was hit by a truck.

Samajwadi Party president and former UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav sat on a ‘dharna’ outside the Vidhan Bhavan in Lucknow following the Unnao rape victim's death.

BSP supremo Mayawati asked the UP government to ensure “proper justice” to the victim's family, saying the young woman's death was extremely painful and that her party was with her family in their hour of grief. "To prevent such traumatic incidents all over the country, including in UP, state governments should create fear of law among people and in view of the incidents, the Centre should also make a law to ensure strict punishment by hanging to death within a stipulated time-frame," Mayawati tweeted.