Crime against women on the rise in UP; Maya govt on the backfoot

LUCKNOW: A series of brutal crime against women in the last few days has rocked the Mayawati government which has been battling to control the negative fallout in the run up to the assembly elections in less than a years time. In the latest such case, a 33 year old woman was raped and then set ablaze by three men in Nidhauli village of Etah on Sunday night.

Special DG Brij Lal said that the woman had in her dying declaration said that three men had barged into her house in the middle of the night and one of them Sunil Yadav raped her and then set her on fire.

However, the victims brother Viresh said that five men raped her and then on being identified by her set her on fire and left her for dead.

The government has removed the Station Officer of Nidhauli, Narendra Pal Singh for trying to cover up the case. He had initially tried to pass of the rape and murder of the woman as a suicide case.

In Firozabad, a 15 year old girl was raped by her friend Shanu and his aide Gatua. Shanu was arrested by the police. In Gonda a 16 year old Dalit girl was raped and killed in Karnilganj area. Two people have been arrested in the case.

Two youths in Kannauj gouged out an eye of a 13 year old Dalit girl, when she tried to resist rape on Saturday evening.

The girls parents were turned away from the police station when they went to file a complaint. Doctors said that one of her eyes has been damaged forever and another eye had some serious injuries.

After the incident got highlighted the police arrested one of the accused Niranjan Yadav and the government suspended two policemen.