Unnao Woman, Who Was Set On Fire, Dies In Hospital

A 23-year-old woman, who was set on fire by men accused of raping her in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao, died at a hospital in Delhi late last night.

The woman, who had suffered 90 per cent burns after she was set on fire on Thursday, died of a cardiac arrest at the Safdarjung Hospital at 11:40 pm, where she had been air-lifted to from Uttar Pradesh on Thursday evening.

"She suffered cardiac arrest at 11:10 pm and we tried to resuscitate her, but she could not survive and at 11:40 pm she died," said Dr Shalabh Kumar, Head of Department (Burns and Plastic), Safdarjung Hospital.

The woman's body was transferred to the hospital's forensic department where an autopsy will be conducted, following which her body will be handed over to her family. The autopsy reports will be given to the police, hospital sources said.

The woman had told the police she was thrashed and stabbed before being set on fire near her village in Unnao by five men, including two she had accused of raping her and their fathers. She was on her way to a court hearing in her rape complaint when the men surrounded her near a railway station.

The woman, in her burnt state, was conscious all the way to the hospital, where she gave a statement to the police identifying all five attackers.

"At 4 am I was going to a local railway station to catch a train to Rae Bareli. Five people (she named them) were waiting for me. They surrounded me and first hit me on the leg with a stick and also stabbed me in the neck with a knife. After that they poured petrol on me and set me on fire," the woman told the police from her hospital bed in Unnao.

"When I started shouting, a crowd collected and the police was called," she had said.

The police however say a medical report has not confirmed the stab injury.

Her alleged rapist Shivam Trivedi, who was among the attackers, had been released on bail in the case five days ago. His co-accused Shubham Trivedi, who had been missing, also participated in the attack.

All five attackers were arrested from their homes.

The circumstances in which the woman's rapist was released on bail are being questioned. So is the role of the police, who filed an FIR on her rape complaint in March, four months after she was allegedly gang-raped by Shivam Trivedi and his neighbor Subham Trivedi.