After two weeks of being gang-raped by a group of upper-caste men, a 19-year-old Dalit woman from Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh succumbed to injuries at a hospital in New Delhi.
The girl was raped on September 14 and was initially admitted to a district hospital with her tongue cut off and spinal cord severely injured, among other serious injuries.
The girl was first admitted to the ICU of a hospital in west UP’s Aligarh and later shifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital.
The four accused belonging to the upper caste community were charged with gangrape and attempt to murder, apart from charges under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The accused were arrested based on a statement provided by the victim on September 23.
She gave her statement after she briefly regained consciousness.
She had accused three men – Sandeep, his uncle Ravi (35) and their friend Luv Kush, of committing the crime.
As reported by the Indian Express, the family alleged the main accused, Sandeep, and his family had “always harassed Dalits in their area”.
As per the reports, nearly two decades ago, Sandeep’s grandfather had been booked under the SC/ST Act and served three months in prison for allegedly thrashing the victim’s grandfather over a petty issue.
In a couple of tweets in Hindi, Priyanka Gandhi said, “The rape victim of UP’s Hathras has succumbed to injuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital. For two weeks, she was struggling for her survival. The series of rape incidents in Hathras, Shahjahanpur and Gorakhpur have shaken the state.”
“The law and order situation in UP has been disturbed to an extent. There is no arrangement for the women safety. Criminals are committing crime without any fear. The perpetrators should be severely punished,” she said.