UP Woman Allegedly Dragged With Dupatta, Gang-Raped; Doctors Say Critical

A 20-year-old woman from western Uttar Pradesh's Hathras is fighting for her life in the intensive care unit of a government hospital after she was gang-raped and brutally assaulted, allegedly by four men from her village. The girl belongs to the Scheduled Castes community, while all four accused are from a so-called upper caste.

Doctors at the hospital where she is admitted say the woman has multiple fractures all over her body and her tongue was cut too. Her condition in extremely critical and she may need to be shifted to a bigger and more advanced facility in Delhi, according to doctors.

The police have arrested all the four accused, charged them with gang-rape and murder, and sent them to jail.

The woman's family, however, alleged the police did not help them initially and only acted after outrage over the case. The police have denied the allegation. The incident allegedly happened on September 14 at a village in the district, some 200 km from Delhi.

"My mother, sister and elder brother had gone to a field to get some grass. My brother went home earlier with a large bundle of grass, while my mother and sister continued to cut them. There was bajra crop on either side of where they were. Soon, both women became a little distant from each other. Four-five people came from behind, they threw my sister's dupatta around her neck and dragged her inside the bajra field," the woman's brother told NDTV.

"My mother realised she was missing and went looking for her. My sister was found unconscious. They had raped her. The police did not help us initially; they did not take quick action. They acted only after four-five days," woman's brother said.

The Uttar Pradesh Police said they acted fast in the case. "We arrested one accused soon and once we managed to get the names of three other accused, we arrested them too. We will complete the investigation soon and the SP has requested the district judge to commit the case to a fast-track court," Hathras police officer Prakash Kumar said in a video statement tweeted by UP Police.