The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested a man for allegedly setting a woman on fire in the state’s Sitapur district after she resisted his sexual advances, The Hindu reported on Sunday. The woman, believed to be about 20 years old, is undergoing treatment at the district hospital.
Additional Superintendent of Police Sitapur Madhuvan Singh said the woman had recently filed a police complaint alleging that the man was sexually harassing her. He and his brother allegedly attacked her on Saturday. “When she went to the sugarcane field to relieve herself, the youth along with his brother poured kerosene oil on her and set her on fire,” Singh said.
Superintendent of Police SP Prabhakar Chaudhary said they were looking for the other accused, and that the local station officer Om Prakash Saroj was suspended for not acting on the woman’s complaint.
The police have registered a case under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.
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