A 23-year-old woman who was set on fire by her alleged rapists in Unnao died in a Delhi hospital on Friday night, PTI reported. She was undergoing treatment at Safdarjung Hospital after being airlifted from Lucknow to Delhi hours after the incident on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday, doctors had described the woman’s condition as extremely critical, as she remained on ventilator support. She had suffered more than 90% burns.
“Despite our best efforts, she did not survive,” Dr Shalabh Kumar, head of the burns and plastic surgery department, said. “Her condition deteriorated towards the evening. She had a cardiac arrest around 11.10 pm. We tried to resuscitate her, but she passed away around 11.40 pm.”
An autopsy will be conducted by the hospital’s forensic department, after which the reports will be given to the police, PTI reported.
The woman’s brother demanded justice for her on Saturday, and said the accused would have to go to the place “where she has gone”, PTI reported. “She asked me that brother, please save me,” he said. “I am very sad that I could not save her.”
Her father said: “All I want from the government and the authorities is that either they should be hanged or they should be shot dead, like what happened near Hyderabad. I am not greedy. I don’t want any house to be made. I don’t want anything else.”
He was referring to the police encounter that took place near Hyderabad in the early hours of Friday, in which four men accused of raping and killing a woman were shot dead when they tried to escape from custody.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath expressed grief at the woman’s death and said the case would be taken to a fast-track court, ANI reported. The state’s justice minister, Brajesh Pathak, said the government would seek daily hearings.
The woman was allegedly raped by two brothers in Unnao last year. She had filed a case against them in March. One of the accused was on the run and the other, Shivam, was released on bail only last week. The woman was on her way to a local court for a hearing in her rape case on Thursday when she was attacked by five men – two of whom were the rape accused – and set on fire. All five men were arrested within hours.
On Friday, the woman’s uncle alleged that a relative of the main accused Shivam had threatened him.
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