The condition of the 18- year-old girl, allegedly set on fire by a taxi driver in Pauri district on Sunday, remained very critical on Monday, said the doctors at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) Rishikesh who are treating the victim. They said that she was not showing any sign of improvement despite the best treatment being given to her.
The girl had been brought at AIIMS Rishikesh on late Sunday night when she was referred from Srinagar Medical College. The public relations officer (PRO) AIIMS Rishikesh, Prakash Thapliyal informed that the condition of the girl was critical. “She has sustained 60 percent burns. She is now kept at the intensive care unit. She is still unconscious,’’ he said. The doctors of the institute have been doing their best to save the life of the girl, he added.
Meanwhile, the parents of the victim have alleged that the State administration is offering no help to them. They also met the AIIMS director on the day who assured them that the best possible treatment to the burn victim would be provided.
In Pauri, the heinous crime left a shock wave with the people hitting the roads to vent their anguish against it, deemed as rare in the district as well as the State.
The locals, most of whom were youngsters, held a demonstration outside the office of the district magistrate on the day. The angry people gathered outside the district hospital too where the accused was brought for the medical examination.
They demanded the accused be handed over to them. Sensing trouble, police took away the accused through the back gate of the hospital. Shocked over the unheard-of- crime in the area, the agitators also blocked traffic in many areas of the town on the day.
In the shocking incident, an 18-year-old girl, a resident of Peepli village located in Kapolsyun patti of Pauri, had been allegedly stalked by a man when she was returning home from college.
The accused, a taxi driver, had allegedly dragged her to roadside where he tried to sexually assault her. Faced with resistance, he had allegedly poured petrol on her and set her ablaze. The place being a desolate one, none had heard the screams of the burning girl. She had been later spotted lying on the roadside by a passerby who informed the police.
Thereafter, the girl had been taken to the district hospital Pauri from where she had been referred to Srinagar Medical College. In view of her serious condition, she had then been referred to a higher centre and brought at AIIMS Rishikesh. The police had later arrested accused identified as Manoj Singh, a resident of Gahad village, and handed him over to revenue police which had registered cases under section 354, 307 and 506 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Cong asks CM to quit
Flaying the brutal crime, the State Congress slammed the State Government for pompously flaunting ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ while the girls are being assaulted in spiralling number across the State.
The party spokesperson Pradeep Bhatt said that the State is now witnessing mafia rule and the girls are at its receiving end. “The girls being subjected to inhumane crimes at regular intervals, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat should resign owning moral onus for his failure to give protection to the women,” he said. Bhatt further said that the women protesters had been jailed to please the liquor mafia and a female teacher had been shoved out from the CM Darbar.