Rajasthan Woman, Who Set Herself On Fire Outside Police Station, Dies

A woman who set herself on fire in front of a police station in Jaipur on Sunday, died at a government hospital today. The 38-year-old had registered a rape case against her ex-husband's relative last month.

The woman had accused her ex-husband's relative, ten years younger than her, of raping her over a period of four years. She had registered a case on June 5.

According to her complaint, the accused would visit her often as he was her then husband's relative and raped her one day. After this, the man allegedly blackmailed her and kept raping her for four years.

The police, however, said they carried out a detailed investigation and found the victim and the accused were in a relationship. This also allegedly led to a divorce between the victim and her husband this year in February. The victim lodged a case against the accused because his parents fixed his marriage to someone else in May this year, police said.

The police also claim they have call and message records that prove the affair between the accused and the woman.

The police claimed they went to places they accused and the woman allegedly went together and found no sign of coercion. The police also claimed the woman sometimes took her child along to meet the accused.

"We have handled this case with utmost sensitivity, the victim's FIR was registered and her statements recorded before a magistrate, but after investigation we have not been able to establish any coercion on the part of the accused. It has also emerged that after the family of the accused started looking for an alliance for him, the victim first tried to reason with him and then registered a rape complaint," Deputy Commissioner of Police Bajrang Singh Shekhawat said.

Police also tried to save the woman when she attempted suicide and one constable was severely injured in the process, the DCP said.

The opposition BJP in the state criticised the police for not arresting the accused named in the complaint.

"The law makes a very straight case for arrests in these cases. Obviously the delay in arresting the accused led the woman to take this extreme step," BJP legislator Rajpal Shekhawat said.