NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: The woman who had set herself on fire outside the Supreme Court last week, along with her male friend, died of burns on Tuesday, reports Rajeev Dikshit. She was undergoing treatment at RML Hospital in Delhi after suffering 65% burns in the incident. The male friend died of burns early on Saturday.
The woman, who had alleged rape, had been battling for life for the past eight days and was on ventilator. Her condition deteriorated on Tuesday morning and she was declared dead around 11am. Her body was handed over to her family members and the last rites were performed at Nigambodh Ghat. The woman’s father had died many years ago and she has a brother, who studies in Class X.
The man who died earlier was her senior in college and a former associate of BSP MP Atul Rai. The two, who were in their mid-20s, had set themselves on fire outside the Supreme Court on August 16 after pouring kerosene on themselves. The police had rushed them to the hospital with 65-70% burns. They were declared unfit for making any statement.
Both blamed police, politicians for their death
The woman belonged to Ballia and the man to Ghazipur, both in UP. They had accused UP police officials, politicians and judges of driving them to take the extreme step. They had done a Facebook live of over 10 minutes, just before the incident, in which the woman had accused Rai, MP from Ghosi, who is lodged in Naini jail, of harassing her and the man by implicating them in a false case after she had filed a case against Rai for allegedly raping her.
The woman had filed the case in May 2019, alleging that the incident took place on March 7, 2018, at his apartment and Rai had recorded a video which he threatened to circulate on social media.
Following this, Rai’s brother, Pawan Kumar, had lodged a complaint in November 2020 with the Cantonment police station of Varanasi, accusing the woman of having forged her date of birth in documents attached to her rape complaint. A nonbailable warrant was issued against the woman and her companion in this case by a Varanasi court in the first week of August. The complainant had also filed one more case against the jailed MP and his companion, Sudhir Singh, with the Lanka police in December 2020, accusing the two of defaming her through propaganda on social media.
“The possibility of conviction of the accused in the rape case following the death of the complainant and also the prime witness has increased as both had given evidence before the MP-MLA court,” district government counsel (criminal) Prayagraj, Gulab Chandra Agrahari, told TOI on Tuesday. A senior cop, who is monitoring the prosecution in this case, said: “The statement of other witnesses has already been recorded before the MP-MLA court. Now, the recording of the statement of the accused is due.”
The self-immolation bid had resulted in former Varanasi SSP Amit Pathak being attached to the DGP headquarters by the state home department. The Varanasi Cantonment police station in-charge, inspector Rakesh Singh, and sub-inspector Girija Shanker Yadav were suspended and the state government formed a special investigation team to probe the incident. Former circle officer Bhelupur Amaresh Singh Baghel had been suspended by the state government on December 30, 2020, for laxity in investigating the rape case. Rai, who had filed his nomination as a BSP candidate from the Ghosi parliamentary seat, won the elections as an absconder and later surrendered before a court on June 22, 2019. He has been in jail since then. Police have filed a chargesheet against Rai.
