Two eve teasers set a girl on fire in her house in Kalahandi. (Representational)
A teenaged girl studying in 10th grade from Kalahandi, set on fire by miscreants last week for resisting against eve-teasing, succumbed to her burn injuries today after a week-long struggle for survival at Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in Rourkela.
A student of class 10th of TRW School at Madhupur village in Kalahandi district of Odisha was set on fire by two youths, identified as Sana Sahoo and Bulu Das for protesting against eve-teasing in the village.
The miscreants had passed vulgar comments at the girl, who in turn had informed her family. Her mother had cautioned the two youths but the duo. On January 11, took advantage of her being alone in the house and set her on fire.
She was admitted to a hospital at Burla and later shifted to IGH after her condition deteriorated.
"We have provided Rs 2,000 from Red Cross and a vehicle to transport the girl's body to her village after post-mortem," said Rourkela Additional District Magistrate Monisha Banerjee.
The crime branch of Odisha Police is probing the incident and six people, including the two prime accused, have been arrested in connection with the case.
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, who visited the hospital, expressed concern over the death of the minor girl.
"I demand Rs 10 lakh compensation for the victim's family and stringent action against the culprits so that nobody will dare to commit such crime in future," Oram said. The tribal affairs minister added that he would also request the central government to make arrangement to provide financial assistance to the victim's family.
The police meanwhile took Bulu Das and Sana Sahu on remand in the case during the day.
The crime branch had moved the court of additional sessions judge of Bhawanipatna to allow it to take all the accused on remand.
It also filed a petition before the chief judicial magistrate-cum-chairman of Juvenile Justice Board to allow the remand of Sana Sahu, who is a minor. Both the judges allowed the crime branch to take the two accused on 5 days remand.