Acting swiftly, the police in Lakhimpur Kheri picked up five persons on Sunday morning to grill them in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a minor.
The incident took place in the Mohammadi police station limits late on Saturday night and the girl was admitted to the Lakhimpur district hospital, Additional Superintendent of Police Arun Kumar Singh disclosed.
Around 9 pm on Saturday, the 15-year-old girl went out of her house to relieve herself when the accused caught her and raped her in turns.
On learning about the incident, family members of the minor reported the incident to the police, Singh noted.
"The minor was sent for medical examination and her condition is stated to be stable. In her statement to the magistrate, she named four persons as the accused,” the ASP added.
Her brother, however, named five persons in the incident in his statement to the police. They have been detained and are being interrogated.
A case has been registered under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the ASP noted.
The accused were identified as Nikhil, Jairam, Pushpendra, Vimal and Pawan.
Meanwhile in a separate incident, a Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped in the Pilibhit district. After committing the act the two accused tried to kill her by setting her ablaze but she survived with severe burn injuries, police said.
The two accused were arrested on Saturday night.
At present, the girl is undergoing treatment at the district hospital in a critical condition.
Police sources said that the girl, a resident of a village under Madhotanda police station, was brought to the district hospital last Thursday evening in a critical condition. She was seriously burnt. A video of the girl accusing the two youths of gang-raping her and then setting her ablaze went viral on social media the next morning following which the police swung into action.
Senior officers of the district police reached the hospital and started an investigation. The two accused -- Rajveer and Tarachand of the same village -- were arrested on Saturday night on the basis of a complaint filed by the girl's father. A case was registered against the two accused.
The girl's father said that they had no clue about her ordeal before she regained consciousness on Saturday morning and informed them about the incident. Pilibhit’s Superintendent of Police Dinesh P said that taking prompt action on the complaint filed by the girl's father, police arrested the two accused and registered a case against them.
He also said that no complaint was filed by the girl's family members before Saturday as they were unaware of how she received burn injuries. .
Meanwhile in Sheeshgarh police station area of Bareilly, a man hacked his wife to death and later committed suicide.
Bareilly’s Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Rajkumar Aggarwal said that Sohanlal (30), a resident of Ishwarpur village in Sheeshgarh police station area, slit the throat of his wife Kaushalya Devi (30) with a sharp weapon in a sugarcane field outside the village on Saturday afternoon. The ASP said after killing his wife, the man consumed a poisonous substance due to which he also died on the spot.
According to the official, the family members of the deceased revealed that Kaushalya Devi and Sohanlal, having four children, often had a dispute over some or the other domestic matter. On Friday also, the two had heated arguments but the matter was resolved after other family members intervened. Family members disclosed that Sohan Lal was mentally disturbed since Friday evening and on Saturday afternoon, he took wife Kaushalya Devi with him to the forest. The two again had a dispute after which Sohan Lal killed his wife by slitting her throat with a sharp weapon in the field. Later, after finding that his wife was dead, he consumed poison and died at the same spot. In the evening, when some villagers saw their bodies lying in the field, they raised an alarm after which the police were informed.
Police started investigating the incident and sent both the bodies for post-mortem.