Another rape victim dies in neighbouring state

A minor Dalit girl, who set herself on fire last week after being raped by a neighbour in a car, succumbed to her burn injuries on Thursday morning at a premier hospital in Haryana’s Rohtak district.

For the last seven days, the 16-year-old schoolgirl, a student of class 10, was battling for life. Doctors treating the victim, who had suffered 90 per cent burn injuries, at the Post Graduate Institute (PGI) confirmed her death.

They said her condition had remained critical since she was admitted. She took the extreme step out of social fear and stigma attached to rape, said sources.

All this while she was in the hospital, neither Haryana chief minister B S Hooda nor any of the local leaders bothered to meet her or her family.  

The accused, whom the girl addressed as chacha, plotted to rape her in cold blood, police said. On January 5, Rakesh stopped his car by girl’s side when she was heading home from school. He asked her to sit inside the car claiming that her father was seriously ill. The accused emotionally lured the girl to come with him and meet her father. She got panicked and sat inside the vehicle.

Then he told her that he had lied about her father’s health and raped her. He threatened the victim of dire consequences if she told anyone about the rape. But the accused was arrested within hours after a complaint was registered against him by girl’s mother.