Rape survivor sets herself ablaze as out-on-bail accused ‘pressure’ her to marry, take case back

New Delhi: “The two people who raped me are threatening me to marry either of them and withdraw the rape case or they will do something to me after which I will not be able to marry anyone”. These are the words of a woman who self-immolated herself on November 4, after the two people, who allegedly raped her in 2021 got released on bail and started pressuring her to marry either of them and take the case back. The woman is fighting for her life with 70% burns at New Delhi’s Safarjung hospital, from where she narrated her ordeal to the police and media. She asks, “You tell me how could I have done this? How can I make the person who played with my honor as my husband? How would you spend life with her?” “That’s why I decided to die.” The victim set herself ablaze after pouring diesel all over her on November 4 at her village in Fatehgharh of Farukkhabad in Uttar Pradesh. How it happened? The incident of the alleged rape had occurred on January 8, 2021. At around 8 PM at night, she was out in the field for defecation. While returning, one person held her from behind while another threw a big piece of cloth over her. They allegedly silenced her by keeping a hand on her mouth from over the cloth and took her to an isolated spot in the forest. After almost 10 minutes of walking, the accused—Shivam and Adesh—removed the cloth from her face and she saw the two. “I knew them from the village,” the victim reportedly said. “I shouted to them, asked why they brought me here? Get out of my way and let me go, I said but when I got up and started to leave, Shivam held my hand and pushed me on the ground and Aadesh held my legs. They tied my hands with a cloth. Then took turns raping me. After about an hour, both of them fled leaving me unconscious,” she said. She had fainted and woke up next in a hospital, the victim added. Her distraught father found her in the field The victim’s father said he had stayed at his farm on the dreadful night. “Her mother was sleeping, so she went out to relieve herself alone,” he said, adding that in the middle of the night, his wife woke up and after not seeing her daughter, she started searching in the house, but to no avail. “When she could not find her anywhere in the house, she searched in the village. My neighbour came to the farm to pick me up,” he said. “He told me that my daughter is missing, I immediately started searching,” he said. After searching for a few hours in vain, he informed the police. “Several teams started searching for my daughter. Then after hours of effort She was found in the bushes at some distance from the house. She was lying naked under a big cloth,” the father told media. The cops took the victim to hospital where she regained consciousness after a few hours and narrated her ordeal to police. Based on her statement and the medical report which confirmed rape, the cops arrested the two accused and sent them to judicial custody. To deal with the trauma, the family had sent her to grandparents’ house from where she returned after a few months. By this time, the father says, she had almost forgotten the horrific incident and had started showing signs of psychological recovery. Nightmare returns The victim told media on Monday that she was trying to forget everything. Her family was also helping her in the process. “They used to ask me go out alone to regain my confidence but I used to ignore because the idea of being along in the public scared me,” she said, adding that one day she agreed to go out for vegetables. As she was heading towards the market, she saw Shivam and Adesh walking towards her, one of their friend Ankit was also there. Scared to death, she thought to herself, how the two got out of jail. “They came close to me and held me firmly, they touched me inappropriately and said, either I should marry one of them or withdraw the case, otherwise they would do something after which I will not be able to marry anybody,” she said. After this, she ran back to her house and told her mother everything, “Mother asked me not to care as she will talk to police but it did not help because the two had now started to threaten my family as well,” she said, adding that they threatened to kill her siblings. “One day, they even came to my home and started pressuring me for marriage, they ran back after I started screaming,” she said. “After that, those people used to trouble me like this. This had started taking a toll on my family as they were worrying a lot. The people of the village also used to say wrong things to us. I had thought in my mind that day that I will end this problem. I will kill myself,” she said. On November 4, she says she was waiting for her parents to leave the house. “As soon as both of them left, I sent my younger siblings outside. After that, I sprinkled the diesel kept in the house and set myself on fire. The burning of the fire was so much that I ran out of the house. Fell on the road. After that I don’t know what happened to me?” What people saw? The people of the village told, seeing the victim burning, we ran towards farm to call back their parents. They doused the fire by putting cloth on it and took the victim to Lohia Hospital. From there she was referred to Saifai Hospital. But when there was no improvement, the doctors referred her to Farrukhabad district hospital. Situation however did not improve in Farukkhabad due to which she was eventually brought to Delhi Sadarganj Hospital about six days ago. She is still undergoing treatment and demanding for justice. (With inputs from agencies)