Lucknow: Two of the five people accused of burning a 30-year-old woman alive after raping her in Rajpura area of Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district have been arrested.
The horrific incident took place around 2 am on Saturday when the woman was at her home with her 10-year-old daughter. The woman’s husband works as a labourer in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and wasn’t home. Taking advantage of his absence, the accused barged into her house, gang-raped her and left the place.
Following this, the victim called her cousin on his mobile phone and informed him about the ordeal. She also named the five men who raped her and asked for help. An audio clip of this call is with the police.
However, before her cousin could come to her rescue, the five men returned and dragged her to a nearby temple. They then burnt her alive in the havan kund (place where the sacred fire is burnt during religious ceremonies) that was inside a hut in the temple premises.
The five men have been identified as: Aram Singh, Mahaveer, Charan Singh, Gullu and Bhona. “The prime accused in the case, Aram Singh and Bhona alias Kunwar Pal, have been arrested. Both of them are being interrogated,” a news agency quoted Superintendent of Police R M Bharadwaj.
“Four police teams have been formed and they are conducting raids at various places to nab the other three accused,” he said.
The Circle Officer of Gunnaur, Aqil Ahmad, said the accused were relatives of the 30-year-old victim. “The hut, where the woman was burnt alive, was used to perform ‘yagna and havan’,” SHO, Rajpura, Arun Kumar had said.
Bhardwaj, had on Sunday said that post-mortem of the victim could not confirm whether she was raped.
“Whether she was raped or gangraped could not be ascertained in the post-mortem. The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Moradabad, has been asked to ascertain it and the required samples will be sent to them,” he had said.
In his complaint, the victim’s husband alleged that after she was gangraped, his wife called her cousin to inform about the incident but by the time the police could be contacted, the accused returned and dragged her to the hut and burnt her alive.
