17 year old battles for life after being raped and set on fire

Sumesh Rajan

Mumbai, September 12, 2022

 

 

A 17-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped and set on fire by two men in her village under Madhotanda police station limits in the Pilibhit district of Uttar Pradesh, India.

The victim, with severe burn injuries, is currently battling for her life in a hospital in the state capital Lucknow.

The incident took place inside her house in the village at around 2.30 pm on September 7 when she was alone. However, the incident came to light when a video, wherein the victim is narrating her ordeal, went viral on September 10. The critically injured girl, suffering from 80 percent burn injuries, after regaining consciousness on September 10 is seen narrating her ordeal to her father at the district hospital in Pilibhit.

On the day of the incident, when the girl’s father returned from his farm, he found her in an unconscious and severely burnt state. During this time, the girl’s mother had been away and was staying with her parents in another village for some days.

The girl’s father immediately rushed her to a nearby community health centre, from where she was referred to Pilibhit district hospital. As the victim remained unconscious till late evening on September 10, her father did not know anything about the rape till then.

On coming to know about the heinous incident, Pilibhit (Sadar circle) Sub-Divisional Magistrate Yogesh Kumar Gaur reached the hospital and recorded her statement, in which the girl alleged that the two men from her village barged into her house when she was alone. They abused and raped her, and then set her ablaze, she stated to the SDM.

The victim was later shifted to King George's Medical College Hospital in Lucknow which has better facilities,  on September 11 afternoon, after her health condition started deteriorating.

An FIR  has been registered under sections 376 (rape), 307 (attempt to kill), 452 (house trespass), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, and appropriate sections of the POCSO Act and the Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes Act, and the two accused men, aged 22 and 25, were arrested and sent to jail on September 11.

Later, Inspector General of Bareilly zone, Ramit Sharma, along with Superintendent of Police Dinesh Kumar Prabhu, reached the victim’s house and inspected the crime spot.