Five Unnao accused charged with murder

On December 5, the five accused allegedly set the woman her on fire when she was going to Rae Bareli to attend a court hearing in the rape case filed by her.

The Uttar Pradesh police has charged five men, accused of setting a 23-year-old rape victim on fire in Unnao last December, with murder, police officials familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The rape survivor was brought to a Delhi hospital on December 5 .(HT file)

On December 5, the five accused allegedly set the woman her on fire when she was going to Rae Bareli to attend a court hearing in the rape case filed by her.

“A charge sheet, charging the five with murder under Section 302 of the IPC has been submitted on Wednesday,” said Unnao superintendent of police Vikrant Veer on Thursday.

The five men who assaulted the woman included Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi, the two accused in the gang rape case.

The victim had accused Shivam and Shubham of abducting and raping her in December 2018. The FIR in the case, however, was registered in March 2019. Key accused Shivam was arrested in September and sent to jail. He was later granted bail by the Allahabad high court on November 25, and 10 days later the woman was set ablaze.

In her statement, recorded before an administrative magistrate at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee (Civil) Hospital in Lucknow on December 5, the woman had said the two men, accompanied by Hari Shankar Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, and Ram Kishore Trivedi, accosted her at Gaura crossing, pressured her to withdraw the case, and then, when she declined, set her ablaze.

The woman was airlifted to New Delhi and admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital after she suffered 90% burns. She died on the night of December 6.

Additional superintendent of police, Vinod Kumar Pandey, who is heading a Special Investigation Team formed to probe into the case said: “The charge sheet was prepared based on those evidences that we had against the five.”

The case had triggered a political storm with opposition parties accusing the Uttar Pradesh government of failing to provide security to the woman and her family. The government, however, maintained that the administration would leave no stone unturned to ensure punishment to the guilty.

The victim’s father had alleged that he learnt about the death of his daughter from the media, and no one from the district administration cared to inform him. “Isn’t it insensitive that a father is not told about his child’s death,” the woman’s father said, adding that he would fight for justice till his last breath. “It doesn’t matter how much time it takes, a year or 20 years, I will keep fighting and ensure capital punishment.”

(With agency inputs)