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UP Policemen Allegedly Set Woman Ablaze, 2 Cops Suspended

Woman Allegedly Burnt Alive By UP Cops
Crime scene tape put up on our street to block traffic.
voteprime/Flickr
Crime scene tape put up on our street to block traffic.

Two Uttar Pradesh policemen allegedly burnt a 40-year-old woman alive after they reportedly sexually harassed her and asked her for a bribe. The incident was reported last night in Barabanki district where the victim died of 80 percent burn injuries. However, the case registered against the accused officials — Kothi Station Officer (SO) Rai Sahab Yadav and Sub-inspector (S-I) Akhilesh Rai — is of abetment to suicide and wrongful confinement.

The woman told Barabanki district magistrate Yogeshwar Ram Mishra that she went to the Kothi police station on Monday after the police had detained her husband for over 24 hours to question him in connection with a clash in their village a few days ago. When the woman asked them to release her husband, they allegedly started harassing her.

“The two policemen took me to a room in the police station. They snatched my jewellery and tried to outrage my modesty. When I raised an alarm, they poured petrol on me and set me afire,” according to the woman's statement. She was rushed to hospital where she died from her injuries.

The woman's family has claimed that the cops asked for Rs 1 lakh bribe from her, while the cops claimed that she self-immolated.

Her elder son, a stringer with a local Hindi newspaper, told Indian Express, “My mother told me that she had offered the policemen Rs 10,000 to let my father go. But they refused and instead demanded Rs 1 lakh. They even tried to snatch her gold chain and threatened to frame my father in the attempt to murder case if she failed to arrange the amount.” However these details aren't mentioned in the police complaint, which the son claimed had been written under duress from police.

Meanwhile Shivpal Yadav, UP minister and leader of the ruling Samajwadi Party, said that strict action will be taken against the guilty.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.