Rape victim faces acid attack by 4 men for refusing to withdraw case in UP

Muzaffarnagar, Dec 07: After the brutal Hyderabad and Unnao cases of crime against women, yet again on Saturday a 30-year-old woman faced acid attack by four men in a village of Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh.

According to PTI report, she was attacked by four men with acid as she refused to withdraw her complaint of rape against them from court.

The victim suffered 30 percent burns and is undergoing treatment at a Meerut hospital in Muzaffarnagar.

Circle Officer Girja Shanker Tripathi of Shahpur police station told PTI that all the four accused reportedly barged into the victim's house on Wednesday night and poured acid on her as she had been refusing to withdraw her complaint of rape against them, filed in a court here.

The four acid attackers and possibly rapist have been identified as Arif, Shahnawaz, Sharif and Abid of Kaserva village. All the four accused are on run.

The woman had earlier filed a case in the local court against the four culprits of raping her some time back.

Some reports suggested that the woman filed complaint in the court because earlier she lodged the complaint with the police but as the police found no evidence of rape during the investigation they closed the case.

A case under section 326 A of the Indian Penal Code, an especially enacted penal provision in the wake of spate of incidents of acid attacks has been registered by the police against the all four accused. Other IPC sections invoked in the FIR are sections 323 (causing hurt), 452 (trespassing into one's house with an intention to assault him or her), 504 (criminal insult) and 506 (criminal threat).

Under this provision the convict can get jail term of ten years on conviction.