The owner of an oil mill and his two associates allegedly pushed an 18-year-old Dalit girl into a cauldron filled with hot oil on resisting sexual harassment in Baghpat, police officials said Sunday.

The police said that they had arrested the three accused following a complaint by the girl’s brother.

The accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 307 (attempt to murder) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In his complaint, the girl’s brother stated that his family had been working at the oil mill at Dhanaura Silvernagar village for four months. On Wednesday, his sister was working at the mill when the owner, Pramod, and his associates, Raju and Sandip, started harassing her.

“She resisted to which they first hurled casteist abuses and then pushed her into the hot oil cauldron within the premises,” he alleged.

“All three escaped while we were informed about the incident by other workers present at the spot,” he added.

The girl suffered burns on over half of her body and is undergoing treatment at New Delhi’s Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, according to police.

Meanwhile in Jhansi, the semi-nude body of a teenage girl was recovered by the police in Babina police station area.

The accused, who turned out to be the uncle of the girl, was arrested by the police on Sunday.

Reports said that the blood-soaked body of a 16-year-old girl was found on Friday morning in a village in Babina police station area. The girl was murdered by crushing her head with a stone. A case of murder was registered and two police teams were pressed in search of the accused.

During the investigation, the police interrogated the 36-year-old brother of the stepfather of the victim, who confessed to the crime on Sunday morning. The accused told the police that he had followed the girl when she went to attend the call on nature on the fateful day. When she reached near bushes, he caught hold of her with the intention of having physical relations. When she protested, he hit a stone on her head and dragged her towards a pit in the bushes and further crushed her head to ensure she was dead.

Superintendent of Police (City)  Gyanendra Kumar Singh said that the girl’s mother married twice and it was her stepfather’s younger brother who killed the girl.

 Police arrested the accused and sent him to jail on Sunday.