India: Girl Set on fire after failed gang rape attempt
According to Superintendent of Police S Anand, the girl told investigators that three people tried to rape her in a field near Rai Kheda village on Monday and when they did not succeed; they poured kerosene and set her on fire.
Police included the rape charge after the intervention of Moradabad senior superintendent of police Prabhakar Choudhury; the survivor’s family has alleged.
A college student who was found without clothes and severely burnt lying along a national highway in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh; has claimed she was set on fire after a failed attempt to gang-rape her, police said on Wednesday.
The BA second-year student was admitted to a hospital in the district and later referred to Lucknow.
The police officer, however, added that she frequently changed her statements; and also said that she was not aware of how she reached the hospital from the third floor of her college building.
In CCTV footage, the girl was seen coming down alone from the third floor, the police said.
“Investigations with the help of CCTV footage have found that the girl went out of the college campus from a broken outer wall about 20 minutes; after entering the premises and was seen walking alone on a canal road,” Anand said.
Prior to that, the girl could be seen talking to her friends outside a classroom and visiting a library; the SP said.
Three teams led by deputy superintendents of police (Dy SPs) as well as a SOG team have been deployed. Besides, another team led by a Dy SP with five policemen is present in Lucknow’s SPM Civil Hospital; where she is undergoing treatment for 72 percent burns. Earlier reports said she suffered 60 percent burns.
After recording the girl’s statement in Lucknow, the investigating officer will take up the matter, the SP said.
