The Unnao rape case is back in headlines owing to the horrific turn of events it took on thursday.
The 23 year old rape survivor was on her way to Rae Bareilly for the hearing of a rape case she had filed when five men, including her alleged rapists, attacked her and set her ablaze.
The victim ran for a kilometer with 90 per cent burns, crying for help and assistance, reports IANS. As per reports, after the incident with burn injuries, she took a bystander’s mobile phone and called the emergency help number and police herself.
According to an NDTV report, the woman who was conscious on her way to the hospital gave a statement to the police identifying her attackers as Shubham, Shivam, Harishankar, Umesh and Ram Kishore.
The victim was admitted to a Shyama Prasad Mukherjee hospital in Lucknow but was later airlifted to Delhi.
The Delhi Traffic Police provided a green corridor from the Delhi airport till Safdarjung Hospital and covered a distance of 13Km in 18 minutes. Safdarjung Hospital said the next 24-48 hours are really critical for her. She was on a ventilator.
Late on Friday night she passed away due to cardiac arrest.
All the five men involved in the attack were arrested within hours.
Case dating back to 2018:
In a tweet earlier, the Uttar Pradesh Police had said the victim filed a case in March this year alleging that she was raped between January 19 and December 12, 2018, by one of the accused on the pretext that he would marry her.Though the victim alleges that the accused — Shivam and Shubham Trivedi — had abducted and raped her in December 2018.
On 25th November , the prime accused, Shubham, was released on bail while the probe in the case was still on, the police had said.
Immediately after securing bail, Shubham allegedly started following and threatening her.
The victim and her family visited the Bihar police station close to the Sindupur village in Unnao several times but the police turned a deaf ear to the complaints.
According to sources one of these five men is the son of the village pradhan against whom the woman had lodged a rape complaint.
Her family had alleged that their relatives have been getting death threats for pursuing the case.
Father of Unnao rape victim said ” We want the accused to be hanged at the earliest, don’t want the case to drag on and on. Police did not help us at all, if they had then my daughter would be alive today” ,while her brother told she wanted “to see the men dead”.
Condolences pour in:
Another innnocent life lost to rape. Extremely Saddened to hear about the demise of the Unnao Rape Victim. My heartfelt condolences. May she rest in Peace. We need to ensure she gets justice as well as all other rape victims…enough is enough….
— Supriya Sule (@supriya_sule) December 6, 2019
As the UP govt goes to sleep another of 'India's daughter' succumbs to a system that failed to protect her#Unnao rape victim who was set ablaze in Unnao and airlifted to Safdarjung Hospital yesterday, died at 11:40 pm.
RIP you brave girl. You fought hard.
— All India Mahila Congress (@MahilaCongress) December 6, 2019
- I am angry and shocked at the incident which embarrassed humanity. Another daughter succumbed to justice and security. In this hour of grief, I express my condolences to the suffering family: Rahul Gandhi
- Keshav Prasad Maurya,UP Deputy Chief Minister on Unnao rape victim passes away:This is an extremely unfortunate incident, I can’t even imagine what the family of the victim is going through. I assure them that we will not spare the culprits, will get them punished at the earliest, as ANI reported.
- Yogi Adityanath said he is “extremely saddened to hear of the woman’s death”. “The case will be heard in a fast-track court and strictest of punishment will be given to the culprits,” the Chief Minister said in a statement.
- While Priyanka Gandhi Vadra headed to meet the victim’s family , Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav protested outside the Vidhan Sabha Bhawan in UP terming it as ‘Black Day’.
Earlier, Unnao had been in the spotlight for similar reasons after another young woman had accused former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her in 2017, when she was 17 years old.
It is ironical that her death came in on the same day when the Hyderabad-case accused were shot dead signifying no matter how hard we try to get rid of the scars of such incidents , we recieve even harder blows on the concept of humanity,merely to be seen anywhere nowadays.
The horror and concern generated by the incident sends chills down the spine . It poses a serious threat about women’s safety and Justice being marred at the hands of our Police department.
As India bears the loss of its daughters to these barbarous crimes, progress stands stagnant towards a safer environment for women.
