Hours after Hathras, another Dalit woman raped, killed in UP

Balrampur (UP) : Another Dalit woman was gang-raped and killed in the state on Tuesday.

Just hours after a gang-raped woman had succumbed to injuries, a 22-year-old Dalit college student met with the same fate in the Gaisari village in Balrampur district.

Two persons have been arrested in connection with the crime.

Balrampur Superintendent of Police, Dev Ranjan Verma, said: "The family said that the woman did not reach home on time on Tuesday. They tried to contact her but could not get in touch. After some time, she came home in a rickshaw with a glucose drip attached to her arm and she was in a bad state. The relatives took her to a hospital but she died on the way."

On Tuesday, the second-year B. Com student reportedly had gone to a college in a nearby town to pay her fees. She also worked in a private firm, her family says.

The girl did not return home until late in the evening. The family tried to reach out her by the phone.

Hours later when she came home in a rickshaw she had a cannula injected into her forehand and she was in a semi-conscious state, IANS reports.

Her mother reportedly said the woman was unable to speak and could only manage to say, "I am in a lot of pain, I won't survive."

The woman looked dazed and in a serious condition, according to the report and she was rushed to a hospital—however she died on the way.

The family alleged the woman had been lethally injected before being raped.

"She had gone to get her admission done at 10 in the morning. We have the receipts. On her way back, 3-4men forcibly put her in their car, injected her and raped her. The accused broke her back and her legs and sent her back in a rickshaw. She had no strength left to even walk," the mother told reporters.

However, the Balrampur Police, in a tweet, said reports about her limbs and waist being broken are not true and these injuries have not been confirmed in the autopsy report.

Following a complaint by the victim's brother, the Balrampur police registered a case and arrested two accused, Shahid and Sahil, on charges of gangrape and murder on Wednesday night.

The victim was raped in the back room of a grocery store in the Gaisari village. The victim's sandals were found outside the room and the owner of the grocery store is the alleged mastermind of the crime, according to the police.

The accused had tried to get the victim treated after raping her, police probe reveals.

They called a nearby doctor to come and see the victim. The doctor grew suspicious of the situation and refused to treat her in the absence of a guardian.

"A boy named Sahil came to call me around 5 pm. He took me to his uncle Shahid's grocery shop. When I reached there, they told me to see a patient from their family. I saw that the room was empty and asked them who the woman was. They told me she is the daughter of a government secretary. I said I will not treat her until a woman or elder from the vicinity is present. They told me to go back to my clinic and said they will call the secretary and get the victim to my clinic. I do not know where they went after that," the doctor told local reporters.

The doctor also said the victim did not have an IV drip attached when he saw her.

The mortal remains of the Balrampur victim had been cremated, after autopsy, in a hurry late on Tuesday night amidst a heavy security.

However, locals said the funeral was conducted with the permission of the victim's family.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in a tweet in Hindi said, "After Hathras, a girl has been gang-raped in Balrampur and she has now succumbed. The BJP government should not indulge in a cover-up like in Hathras and must immediately take strict action against the culprits."

With inputs from IANS