Home ›› 01 Oct 2020 ›› World Biz
Amid outrage over the gang-rape and death of a young woman in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras of India, another 22-year-old Dalit woman died after being sexually assaulted by two youths in the state’s Balrampur.
Both the accused, Shahid and Sahil, have been arrested, reports Indian media.
According to the police, the accused took the woman to a doctor after the rape, but when her condition deteriorated they sent her home.
They had called her to their place “on the pretext of friendship”, said a police officer.
Police claimed that the post-mortem has not revealed injuries to the woman. The police have not spoken officially on whether rape has been confirmed by a medical examination, reports NDTV.
The woman's mother said she was abducted in the morning while on way to secure a college admission. When she failed to return in time, the family launched a search for the woman.
The family says she returned around 7pm, and that the assailants had allegedly put her on an e-rickshaw and sent her home, sources said.
"The men had injected her with some substance due to which she lost consciousness. Then they raped her... They broke her legs, they broke her back. A rickshaw puller brought her home. They threw her in front of our house. My child could barely stand or speak," the woman's mother said, weeping.
"Somehow, crying, my daughter said, 'Save me, I do not want to die'," the mother said.
She added that soon after her return, her daughter complained of burning pain in her stomach.
"The doctor at the local hospital said her condition is serious and advised that she be taken to Lucknow. But she died when we were near Balrampur town," she added.
The police handed over her body to her relatives who cremated her on Wednesday.
The police, however, said the autopsy does not reveal that her hands and legs were broken. "In the said case, prompt action has been taken by the police with both the accused arrested. Details that hands and legs were broke is not true The post-mortem report does not mention this," Balrampur Police tweeted late last night.
Former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav made a jibe at the Yogi Adityanath government, asking it to not "attempt a cover-up" as in the Hathras case.
"After Hathras, another gang-rape incident has surfaced in Balrampur in which the woman died after torture. The BJP government should not attempt a cover-up here like Hathras and should quickly take action against the accused," his tweet in Hindi read.
The Hathras woman, who was also a member of the Scheduled Castes, was attacked on September 19 when she had gone to cut grass for fodder. Her assailants had left her in the fields half-strangled, bearing multiple fractures, tongue gashed, naked, bleeding and paralysed.
Her body was cremated by the Uttar Pradesh police in the middle of the night. Her family was kept locked up and not given a chance to bring her home for the last time and give her last rites.
The state has been under huge criticism and public anger is growing over the issue.
