7 UP Policemen Suspended Following Unnao Rape Victim’s Death

Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam Trivedi & Shubham Trivedi have been arrested.

A rape survivor from Unnao in Uttar Pradesh was allegedly set ablaze by five men.

(Photo: PTI/Altered by The Quint)

Taking cognizance of the death of the Unnao rape victim, who succumbed to burn injuries at a Delhi hospital, the Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday, 8 December suspended seven policemen for negligence of duty.

“Ajay Kumar Tripathi, SHO of Unnao's Bihar police station, along with six other police personnel, has been suspended, for negligence during duty in connection with the death of rape victim,” Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told PTI.

Earlier, a senior doctor at the Safdarjung hospital said on Saturday said that the postmortem of the Unnao rape victim showed that she died of extensive burn injuries, a senior

The 23-year-old woman was set ablaze on Thursday, 5 December, by five people, including two who are accused of raping her. She had suffered 90 per cent burns and was airlifted from Lucknow to the Delhi-based hospital where she died on Friday night.

The Postmortem Report Results

The doctor said,"According to the postmortem report the victim died of extensive burn injuries."

"There was no indication of the presence of any foreign body, poisoning or suffocation on the body of the woman during postmortem conducted this morning," the doctor said.

(Photo: ANI)

The woman's body was taken to her village in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao district in an ambulance.

“She suffered cardiac arrest at 11:10 pm and we tried to resuscitate her, but she could not survive. She passed away at 11:40 pm,” said Dr Shalabh Kumar, Head of Department (Burns and Plastic) at Safdarjung Hospital.

The men set her on fire on 5 December, while she was on her way to Raebareli with her parents to attend a trial in the rape case in which two of the men who burned her were implicated.

While she was initially admitted to the government hospital in Lucknow, doctors monitoring her said that she had sustained 90 percent burns and suggested that she be airlifted to the national capital.

“I have nothing really to say. My sister is no more with us, my only demand is that the five accused deserve death and nothing less.”

Brother of Unnao Victim

The Investigation

The Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a special investigation team to probe the incident.

Meanwhile, the accused – Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi – have been arrested by the police.

Meanwhile, Praveen Kumar, IG Law and Order, said that a police contingent including one sub inspector and two constables have been deployed at the Unnao survivor’s residence as a precautionary measure.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) had also taken suo-motu cognisance of the case and written to Uttar Pradesh DGP, OP Singh, asking him to take action at the earliest.

FIR Lodged In March

In a tweet, the Uttar Pradesh police said the victim had lodged an FIR in March, alleging that she had been raped between 19 January and 12 December 2018, by one of the accused on the pretext of marriage.

The accused was arrested and was released on bail on 25 November.

The police was responding to a tweet by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

(With inputs from PTI & ANI).