In a shocking incident, a rape survivor in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat was allegedly threatened by the accused of facing consequences “worse than the Unnao victim” if she testified in court.
A pamphlet, bearing the message, was pasted outside the house of the rape victim in Bijrol village, who was allegedly sexually assaulted last year and was set to give her statement in a Delhi court on Friday.
According to a report in NDTV, the woman had claimed that she was taken to a friend’s place by the accused last year, where she was given a drink laced with drugs and then raped. The accused had made a video of the act, which was used to blackmail and rape the victim.
The woman was reportedly raped in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar last year and had filed a police complaint last July. The Delhi Police had arrested the accused and had released him on bail on Wednesday.
Following the surfacing of the threat pamphlet, the man has been arrested again and the victim has been provided security to avoid a repeat of another Unnao-like incident.
Another similar incident had surfaced in Uttar Pradesh, where a minor girl from Kanpur was allegedly molested by some men and was threatened with the ‘Unnao rape victim-like fate’ if she complained to the police.
The incident comes close on the heels of a rape survivor being burnt to death by five men in Unnao, some of whom are accused in the case.
The woman, who had survived a brutal gangrape earlier in March, was on December 5 assaulted and set ablaze by five accused in the case in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao district when she was on her way to the Rae Bareli court to testify against the men.
The victim who had more than 90 per cent burn injuries lost the battle after 43 hours of being attacked and died of cardiac arrest late on December 6 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.
Cases of rape continue to be reported in UP despite the growing public outrage against such heinous acts.
Meanwhile, the UP government has passed an order to set up 218 new fast-track courts to expedite trial in cases of crimes against women and children.