Woman ’sold’ for Rs 10, 000, gangraped in UP

The woman set herself on fire after UP police refused to register her complaint.

Woman 'sold' for Rs 10, 000, gangraped in UP

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Meerut (UP): In what can be called as a gruesome crime, a woman was allegedly sold for Rs 10,000 and raped by people for whom she was forced to work as domestic help. The woman set herself on fire after UP police refused to register her complaint.

According to the Delhi Commission for Women, the victim has sustained 80 per cent burn injuries and is now being treated at a Ghaziabad hospital. Senior officials have turned her away and refused to register the complaint.

Following which, DCW chief Swati Maliwal wrote a letter to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath urging him to investigate the police officials in Hapur district for refusing to register the complaint of the woman. In the letter, she also alleged that the woman has suffered intolerable abuse at the hands of UP police and due to the insensitive and shameful attitude of the police officials, the woman took a drastic step to set herself on fire.

However, now the UP police said the matter is under investigation.

The DCW chief's letter said that the woman was sold to a man, who had taken loans from several people, in Hapur for Rs 10,000. The woman was forced to work as domestic help for those people without paying her. she was repeatedly abused and gang-raped at these places.

Maliwal alleged that the victim had approached the Hapur SP and other senior officials to register a complaint against her rapists but refused to do the same. Following this, she attempted suicide by immolating herself on April 28.

In the letter, Maliwal also urged Adityanath to provide proper compensation to the woman. After the DCW intervention, UP police have registered an FIR against Babugarh sarpanch and 13 others for raping the woman, but they say prima facie the case is suspicious and hence they have not arrested anyone.

Hapur SP Yashvir Singh told PTI-Bhasha over the phone that whether she immolated herself or she was set on fire is under investigation. Singh refused to accept those police officials refused to register her complaint because of which she had to attempt suicide. He also said the woman has a history of troubled marriages and she has ended her marriage twice before. She finally married a man in Moradabad and was living with him, he said.

The SP said the incidents of abuse and rape with the woman are five years old and the incidents happened at different times at different places. Police officials have talked to villagers about the woman's complaints but none of them verified her account, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)