NEW DELHI: A Dalit girl, who was burnt after alleged rape by two men in Madhotanda area in Pilibhit, died of her injuries at a hospital in Lucknow on Monday, 12 days after the incident, Uttar Pradesh police said on Tuesday.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Dinesh Kumar Prabhu said that the victim died during treatment at Lucknow’s premier hospital, King George Medical University.

He said the girl’s relatives took her body and left for their village after postmortem.

Adequate police force has been deployed in the village of the girl who died of burns, police said. The officer said that on September 7, in a village in Madhotanda area, two men, Rajveer and Tarachand, entered the 16-year-old Dalit girl’s house and raped her. The accused then allegedly burnt the girl after pouring some inflammable oil over her. She was undergoing treatment in Lucknow.

Mr Prabhu said police had arrested both the accused within two hours. A charge of murder will now be added to the original FIR and the two accused will be tried under the Gangster Act, said police. Uttar Pradesh was where a Dalit girl was raped allegedly by upper caste men and brutally beaten. She died in hospital.

Her swift cremation by the police before an autopsy triggered widespread outrage.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2022