UP: 18-year-old rape complainant dies of burn injuries at Kanpur hospital
The incident occurred in Fatehpur district on Saturday.
A 18-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh set on fire last week after being allegedly raped died in Kanpur on Thursday, PTI reported. She was from a village in Fatehpur district.
“She had suffered from organ failure including lungs and kidneys following serious injuries and we tried to resuscitate her, but she could not survive and died,” said Sanjay Kala, the head of the surgery department of the hospital where she was admitted.
The woman suffered 90% burns in the attack that took place on Saturday. She was on ventilator support since Tuesday because of continued multi-organ dysfunction, and had difficulty breathing, Kala said. “She was almost unconscious since Wednesday evening and took her last breath at around 6.30 am,” the doctor added. The body has been sent for autopsy. Before she lost consciousness, the woman said: “I was raped and set on fire when I was alone at home.”
The police, who registered a case based on a complaint filed by the woman’s father, said initial investigation revealed that the woman and the accused may have been involved in a relationship. The panchayat had reportedly asked them to not meet each other till their marriage.
This is not the first case of a rape complainant being set on fire in the state. Earlier this month, a woman was burned alive in Unnao district by her alleged rapists and their friends after they were released on bail. On Monday, a 23-year-old woman set herself on fire outside the office of the Unnao superintendent of police after a man she had accused of rape got anticipatory bail. Another woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district was warned of consequences “worse than Unnao” by a man from her village accused of raping her in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar area last year. The accused has been arrested.