The
Uttar Pradesh government is making arrangements for an air ambulance to take the
victim, who has suffered around 90 per cent burn injuries, to Delhi.
UNNAO: The Unnao rape survivor, who was set ablaze on Thursday morning by
five men who had raped her reportedly ran for almost a
kilometre crying for help, an eyewitness told a news channel.
"When I went near her, she took my
phone and called the emergency police number," said Ravindra Prakash who
saw the rape survivor after she was set on fire.
"She was crying for help. When I
asked her about her identity, she told me her name. I was still afraid because
she was badly burnt and I thought she was a witch. I even picked up a stick. A
short while later, the police arrived and she was taken to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the survivor landed at the
Delhi airport and was rushed to the Safdarjung Hospital on Thursday evening,
police said.
The Delhi Traffic Police provided a
green corridor for the vehicle carrying her from the airport to the hospital.
She has been airlifted to Delhi from
Lucknow, they added.
She was battling for life with 90 per
cent burns on Thursday after five men, including two of the accused, allegedly
set her on fire while she was on her way to court, police said.
One of the two men accused of raping
her last year was granted bail 10 days back.
The other man had been on the run.
All the five men involved in the
Thursday morning attack were arrested within hours and the victim airlifted in
the evening to Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital.
The woman said in a statement that she
was on her way from her village in Unnao district to Rae Bareli where the trial
is going on when she was attacked.
Doctors attending on her at the Shyama
Prasad Mukherjee Hospital in Lucknow said she is in a "very serious"
condition.
"The condition of the girl who was
set on fire and bought here at 10 am is very serious. She has 90 per cent burn
injuries and we are taking the utmost care," Medical Superintendent Dr
Ashutosh Dubey told PTI.
In the evening, the state government
arranged an air ambulance to take her to Delhi, Lucknow Commissioner Mukesh
Meshram told PTI.
Meshram said a team of doctors
accompanied the woman.
In a tweet, the Uttar Pradesh police
said the victim had lodged an FIR alleging that she had been raped between
January 19 and December 12, 2018, by one of the accused on the pretext that he
would marry her.
The accused was arrested then and got
out on bail on November 25, police said while responding to a tweet by Congress
general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
They added that the probe into the
incident is being conducted in a scientific manner and the circumstantial
evidence collected.
In a chilling recap, the woman said in
her statement to Sub Divisional Magistrate Dayashankar Pathak that she was
attacked when she reached Gaura turn near her home.
Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore
Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi set her afire, she
said.
She alleged that Shivam and Shubham
Trivedi had abducted and raped her in December 2018.
The FIR, however, was registered in
March.
After being set on fire, she ran for a
while before some people saw her and informed the police.
She was taken to the community health
centre from where she was sent to the district hospital, before being referred
to Lucknow, police said.
The incident, just days after the
Hyderabad rape case in which the victim's body was set ablaze, triggered
outrage.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for 30
minutes amid an uproar by opposition parties.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi and
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Yogi Adityanath
government in Uttar Pradesh over the law and order situation.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed
senior police and state administration officials to visit the spot and submit a
report by the evening.
The chief minister also told officials
that the woman should be given the best possible treatment.
He asked the police to ensure strict
action against the guilty and ensure their conviction, officials said.
Priyanka Gandhi said BJP leaders should
stop their "false propaganda".
"Yesterday the home minister of
the country and Uttar Pradesh chief minister lied that law and order in Uttar
Pradesh has become good. Seeing such incidents every day leads to
anger," she said.
The Samajwadi Party demanded that the
Adityanath government should step down.
"The state government should take
moral responsibility for the incident of setting ablaze a rape victim in Unnao
and resign," party leader Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi.
"The attempt to set ablaze the
rape victim is a result of the prevailing 'jungle raj' in UP. The CM should be
ashamed and the DGP should resign. There should be no drama but strict action
should be taken and the best treatment and security should be provided to the
victim," the party added on Twitter.
The National Commission for Women (NCW)
also stepped in with its chairperson Rekha Sharma writing to state Director
General of Police O P Singh.
She sought an action taken a report
from the Uttar Pradesh police as well as a detailed report on the reported
heinous crimes committed against women and bail granted in such cases in the
last three years.
"Considering the gravity of the
matter, it is requested to send a detailed action taken report in the matter
from the date of filing complaint of rape by the rape survivor and strict
action be taken against erring officials for not providing protection to the
rape victim, if found guilty," Sharma said in the letter.
A similar case was recently reported
from the state's Sambhal district.
The badly burnt woman later succumbed
at a hospital in Delhi.
Unnao has been in the spotlight after a
young woman alleged that she had been raped in 2017, when she was 17 years old,
allegedly by former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar.
0 Comments