Uttar Pradesh: Woman burnt alive in Sambhal district allegedly for resisting gangrape; police denies reports of sexual assault

A woman was burnt alive in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district on Saturday for allegedly resisting gangrape. Reports said the accused barged into her house, abducted her and tried to rape her, according to  NDTV. The five later took her to a nearby hut and burnt her alive said Gunnaur Circle officer Aqil Ahmad, quoting from the complaint lodged by the victim’s husband. The incident took place in Pathakpur village in the jurisdiction of the Rajpura Police Station. Station House Officer Arun Kumar was quoted as saying by The Times of India that five men had been booked for gangrape, murder, destroying evidence and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The body of the victim has been sent for autopsy and the police has launched a manhunt to nab the accused, who are absconding. The victim’s husband is a labourer and reside in Ghaziabad. However, the superintendent of police of Sambhal, RM Bharadwaj, dismissed the reports of a gangrape attempt. He was quoted as saying by ANI that a few villagers were behind the crime. The accused have been identified, and action will be taken soon, he said.

We've identified accused & their motive but we can't reveal it now. Action will be taken soon. But reports of gang-rape attempt aren't true.The crime has been committed by some villagers:Sambhal SP RM Bharadwaj on woman allegedly burned to death in Sambhal for resisting gang rape pic.twitter.com/BCrYYKVgPI

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) July 14, 2018

The accused have been identified as Aram Singh, Gullu, Charan Singh, Mahaveer and Kumarpal, The Times of India reported. They belonged to Pathakpur village, as well, and had allegedly been harassing the woman for a while. With inputs from PTI