Teen gang-rape survivor in India sets herself ablaze after tormentors pressure her to marry one of them

‘The two men made my daughter’s life hell. They used to mentally harass her by sending messages on the phone’

A teenage gang-rape survivor in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state set herself on fire after she was allegedly pressured by the men who assaulted her to marry one of them, according to a report.

The incident took place in the state’s Farrukhabad district on 7 November, according to a report in the Times of India newspaper.

The 16-year-old was later taken to the national capital New Delhi and is receiving treatment for 70 per cent burns at Safdarjung Hospital.

Superintendent of police Ashok Kumar Meena said he is present at the hospital along with his deputies.

He also told the outlet that investigations are underway and the accused will be charged soon.

According to another police official, Sachin Kumar Singh, the two accused are brothers and were jailed under charges of abetment of suicide.

Police said the teenager was raped in January 2021, after the accused abducted her when she was out on the fields.

In her police statement, she said she was returning home when the accused abducted her and took her to an isolated place and subsequently raped her.

“I cried and pleaded to let me go but one of them held my hand from the back while the other one held my legs and pushed me to the ground. Then they took turns to rape me and fled the scene leaving me unconscious. Later, I woke up in the hospital,” she was quoted as saying in her statement.

Police said the two accused were out on bail since August this year and had been intimidating and threatening her.

Last month, they stopped her at a marketplace and issued threats to her to withdraw her case.

Police added that the accused kept pressuring her to marry one of them.

“The two men made my daughter’s life hell. They used to mentally harass her by sending messages on the phone. They threatened her that they would kill her family members if she didn’t do as they ordered,” the woman’s father was quoted as saying.