Two UP Men 'Repeatedly' Harass Newly Married Woman, Set Her Ablaze for Lodging Complaint

New Delhi: A newly wed woman was set ablaze in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur on Saturday for allegedly resisting a molestation bid by two brothers and lodging a police complaint against them. She suffered 45% burns and was in a critical state.

According to a Hindustan Times report, the woman had tried to a file complaint thrice but the policemen did not pay heed and sent her away every time. Three cops of the Sitapur’s Tambaur police station involved in the incident were suspended, including in-charge OP Saroj, the local police outpost in-charge and head constable.

Meanwhile, the accused brothers, Raju and Rajesh, were arrested on Sunday after an FIR of molestation and attempt to murder was registered against them.

According to the report, the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, when the woman had wandered off to the sugarcane fields to relieve herself. The brothers ambushed her when she was returning home and started to coerce her to take back her complaint against them.

When she tried to resist and save herself, they poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze. The accused fled from the scene immediately after, as the villagers came scurrying to the spot to save the woman. The victim was first rushed to the community health centre at Tambaur and was later shifted to the Sitapur district hospital.

"The victim’s face and the upper part of her body are burnt. On November 29, they tried to molest her according to her statement. She twice tried to file police complaint but was refused,” senior police officer of Lucknow zone, Sujeet Pandey, who is investigating the case, told a news organisation. He added that swift action has been taken against the cops in a clear case of “negligence of duty.”

According to her relatives, the woman was sexually harassed by the two brothers when she was visiting her parents. They had tried to molest her earlier too, but she had managed to escape.

Her family alleged that she went to the local police station immediately after the accused tried to molest her, but the cops on duty sent her away. The next day her in-laws called a Police Control Room or PCR van to their house but again the cops, who were in the vehicle asked her to revisit the same police station, the report said.