India: Rape Victim Dies After Being set On Fire On Her Way To Court Hearing

India: A gang rape victim who was set alight by a group of men as she traveled to court to testify against her alleged attackers has died. The unnamed woman, 23, was set upon by a gang, including two of the five men she had accused of forcing themselves on her last year.

They had been released on police bail and allegedly dragged her into a field, where she was doused in kerosene and set alight. She suffered 90% burns and died late on Friday night of a heart attack, according to doctors in India.

Her death came the same day that police shot dead four men being held on suspicion of raping and killing a 27-year-old vet.

Officials say that the shooting occurred after one of the suspects tried to grab an officer’s gun to escape, but an MP says the officers had taken the law into their own hands. (Read the story here).

The horrific attack against the 23-year-old happened in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is notorious for its poor record regarding crimes against women. She had filed a rape complaint with police in Unnao district in March alleging she had been raped at gunpoint last December.

Her alleged attackers had been remanded in custody but were released last week ahead of the trial. The woman was taken to a hospital in the state capital of Lucknow after she was set on fire and airlifted across the country for better medical care.

She died at the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi from a cardiac arrest, according to head of the hospital’s burns unit Dr Shalab Kumar. Five men have been arrested in connection with the attack.

Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous state and has some of the highest number of reported rapes in the country, including more than 4,200 in 2017.

-