18-year-old Fatehpur woman raped, set ablaze, dies of burn in Kanpur hospital

Kanpur (UP), Dec 19: An 18-year-old woman from Fatehpur, who was allegedly raped and set ablaze, died on Thursday in a Kanpur hospital after battling for life for almost 120 hours, officials said.

"She had suffered from organ failure including lungs and kidneys following serious injuries and we tried to resuscitate her, but she could not survive and died," Head of the department (surgery) at the hospital, Sanjay Kala said. The body has been sent to mortuary for autopsy.

The rape victim, who had over 90 per cent burns, had been put on ventilator support since Tuesday due to continued multi-organ dysfunction. She was having problems while breathing too, Kala said. "She was almost unconscious since Wednesday evening and took her last breath at around 6:30 am, he added.

The 22-year-old accused was her distant relative, who allegedly raped and set the girl ablaze when she was alone at her house in a village under the Hussainganj Police Station, Circle Officer Kapil Dev Mishra told PTI. On hearing her cries, neighbours had rushed her to a local community health centre from where she was referred to the Kanpur hospital. On the complaint of the victim's father, an FIR was been registered against the accused and efforts are on to arrest him, the circle officer said.

The police officer said in the initial investigation, it has come out that the girl was "romantically involved" with the man and a panchayat meeting was held between their families over the matter on Friday. An understanding of marriage was also reached, he said, adding that further probe was on.

The incident comes less than two weeks after a rape survivor, who was set ablaze by the accused in Unnao while she was on the way for the case's hearing in Rae Bareli, died of burns at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital.