Increasing cases of heinous crimes have been reported in Uttar Pradesh in the last few days. Two infants – a two-month-old baby girl and a seven-month-old baby boy – were thrown into a ball of fire by seven people, including two members of the infants’ family.
According to reports, the incident happened on the night of April 17 in Unnao district, Uttar Pradesh. The severely burnt infants were taken by their respective mothers to a nearby hospital.
The women were a mother and her minor daughter (both belonging to the Dalit community) who took their infants – 2 months old and 7 months old respectively – to the hospital.
Siasat.com spoke to the Unnao Purwa Circle Officer (CO) who said that two of the seven accused had gang-raped the minor daughter a year back. The girl hails from Maurawan village.
A case was registered against five people under the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act). Two of them – Aman (now 18 years of age) and Satish (26) were recently out on bail.
Police said the Dalit girl was gang-raped on February 13, 2022. She gave birth to a son in September that year.
The Unnao Purwa Circle Officer (CO) told Siasat.com that according to the FIR lodged by the mother, she has named seven people responsible for the act, including Aman, Satish, Chandan (the mother’s father-in-law and the minor daughter’s grandfather), Raj Bahadur (the mother’s brother-in-law and the minor daughter’s paternal uncle), Raj Kishore, Ranjeesh and another unnamed person.
A case under Sections 147 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy the house, etc) of the IPC was registered.
“Among the seven people, the police have arrested Raj Bahadur while we are still looking for the remaining accused,” the CO said.
Divulging more details about the case, the police officer told Siasat.com that Aman and Satish wanted the minor girl (who is the mother of the seven-month-old baby boy) to withdraw from the gang rape case. Her mother (who is the mother of the two-month-old baby girl) had issues with Chandan and Raj Bahadur regarding land matters.
“On that fateful night, the seven men barged into their home and threatened as well as beat the women to withdraw the case. When the women relented, they decided to set the house on fire and threw the infants into it. Rescued by their mothers, the babies are now being treated in Kanpur. Their condition is serious,” the CO told Siasat.com.
According to chief medical superintendent Sushil Srivastava, the rape victim’s infant son suffered 35 per cent burns and her sister 45 per cent burns in the incident.
“As their condition worsened, both the kids were sent to Kanpur for better treatment,” he said.
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