Uttar Pradesh: Tea vendor's daughter studying in US dies in accident after bikers harass her

Around two years back, twenty-year-old Sudeeksha Bhati, daughter of a tea vendor, secured a scholarship to study in the United States. She topped the 12th standard exams, that too hailing from a place in western Uttar Pradesh where the girls are stopped from going to the schools owing to harassment.

Little did she imagine back then, that one day she herself would become a victim of harassment.

On Monday, Sudeeksha was going to her maternal grandparents' home in Bulandshahar on the bike. On the way, she fell from the bike after being allegedly hit by a motorbike driven by two youths, who had been harassing her. She died from the injuries sustained.

Sudeeksha, who was a student at the prestigious Babson College in Massachusetts, had returned to India after educational institutions were closed in the US owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

''We were going to meet our relatives in Bulandshahar....two youths on a bullet motorcycle started following us after a while...they would overtake us and then again slowed down...they also passed lewd comments...suddenly they overtook us and braked...I also braked there was a collision...Sudeeksha fell on the hard ground....she died on the spot,'' her uncle Satendra Bhati, who was driving the bike, said.

Sudeeksha's younger brother, who was also with them, suffered minor injuries.

Police, however, contested the family's claim saying that the bike on which Sudeeksha was travelling was driven by her minor brother and that her uncle was not with them. The police also refuted the harassment claim and said that it appeared to be a case of a road accident.

There appeared to be conflict in the police version with the district police chief saying that a case was lodged while the state police chief terming it a road accident.

A pall of gloom descended at Suddeksha's village in Dadri in Gautam Buddh Nagar district and the locals made a beeline before her house to condole her death.

Hailing from a poor tea vendor's family, the girl overcame many difficulties to complete her intermediate. ''She walked 40 kilometers to reach her school,'' said a family member.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that the incident reflected that the women were not safe in UP. BSP supremo Mayawati also slammed the UP government for failing to ensure the safety of the women.