Two days after a 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped and set ablaze by her boyfriend in Greater Noida, the girl succumbed to her injuries on Wednesday.
The girl had suffered over 95 per cent burn injuries and was fighting for her life at Safdarjung Hospital of south Delhi following the incident on Monday in Tigri village.
Doctor said she died around 2.30 am. The Delhi Police sent her body for autopsy, after which, it was brought to her home on Wednesday afternoon where scores of villagers have gathered to show support to the family.
Victim was studying in class 10 in Government College of Gautam Budh Nagar district.
Heavy police force has been deployed in the area to avoid any untoward incident in view of the fact that the girl and the accused boy belonged to different communities, and her death may lead to a communal flare-up.
Police official however claimed that the situation is under control.
Two members from the National Women Commission on Wednesday visited victim’s home and talked to her family for around 30 minutes.
Police have already arrested the accused Ajay Sharma (18), who was a neighbour of the victim and sent him to judicial custody.
The victim’s father claimed foul play on behalf of local police. “I had complained to Bishrakh police earlier that the accused is stalking my daughter but they had not taken prompt action against him. Police, however, had sent the accused to jail under simple sections on June-14, 2015 and he was released on bail after a few days. My daughter’s life could have been saved if the police had taken the matter seriously,” he said.
“We have replaced the section 307 (attempt to murder) by 302 (Murder) of Indian Penal code. Other sections 376, 326, 452 of IPC and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) have been imposed against the accused in Bishrakh police station,” said Abhishek Yadav, Superintendent of police (Rural), Greater Noida.
“We have deployed police force to avoid any untoward incident in the village. Officials are approaching to villagers to maintain peace,” SPRA said.
Police said on Monday around 2:30 am, the youth allegedly went to the girl’s house and met her on the roof where he raped her. When she threatened that she would narrate the incident to her parents, the accused found kerosene oil gallon in her house and poured on her and set her on fire. He then fled the spot. Her body was discovered with burn injuries in a pool of blood at ground floor. Blood stains were also found at the roof.
The incident, which occurred on the eve of International Women’s Day, is yet another in a chain of crimes against women in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) zone, where the Nirbhaya gangrape case of 2012 had led to nationwide outrage and a revision of rape laws.