Indian teen fights for her life after being raped, set on fire

AN Indian girl of 17 was fighting for her life yesterday after being raped, doused in kerosene and set alight, the second such case to shake the country this week as it reeled from a series of brutal sexual assaults.

The girl was attacked on Friday, the same day a 16-year-old was raped and burnt to death, also in the eastern state of Jharkhand.

The two events have shone a spotlight on the treatment of rape in India, where authorities are facing renewed pressure to act on sexual crimes after the gang rape and murder of a girl of eight.

The cases are some of the most high-profile since the 2012 rape and murder of a student on a New Delhi bus triggered mass protests.

“The girl has suffered 70% first-degree burns. There is a chance she will survive,” Shailendra Barnwal, police superintendent of Pakur district, said.

Police have arrested a youth of 19 who lives in the same neighbourhood as the victim.

Fifteen people have been detained in the case of the 16-year-old, who was torched to death in the state’s Chatra district.

The main suspect is said to have been angered by a village council punishment of 100 sit-ups and a fine for raping the girl.

He attacked her parents before setting their house on fire with the teenager inside.

Some 40 000 rape cases were reported in India in 2016, but campaigners say the real number is higher, with victims wary of making complaints because of social stigma.

Amid mounting outrage at the high incidence of rape, the government has changed the law to allow execution for child rapists – but daily sexual assaults continue.

Yesterday, a woman lawyer from the low-caste Dalit community accused a senior lawyer associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party of rape and blackmail.

“I am scared as he is threatening my family,” the woman said.

Meanwhile, India’s Supreme Court ordered the trial of eight men accused of the rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl to be moved to another state yesterday, after her family and lawyer said they faced death threats.

The girl, from a nomadic Muslim community in Indian Kashmir, was drugged, held captive in a Hindu temple and sexually assaulted for a week before being strangled and battered to death with a stone in January.

Her case has caused a wave of revulsion around the country but also exposed communal divisions. All the accused are Hindus. One is a retired local government official and two are police officers.

The victim’s relatives said they feared retribution if they pursued her case in the town of Kathua, near where the girl was killed.

The trial will now be held in the neighbouring state of Punjab, and in camera, so witnesses are assured of protection.

‘ The girl has suffered 70% first-degree burns. There is a chance she will survive