Unnao Rape Case: Delhi Police Use Water Canons On Protesters During Candle March

The Delhi Police on Saturday trained water cannon on protesters who were holding a candle march from Raj Ghat to India Gate. The protestors were demanding justice for the Unnao rape victim who died on Friday night. Hundreds of protesters, holding placards were stopped near ITO by the Delhi police personnel, who asked them to turn back. However, the protesters refused to go back following which the police used water canons on them.

"Protesters were throwing fire at the Police personnel so we had to use water cannons on them. The protesters don't have permission to go beyond this area (near Arun Jaitley Stadium). We are trying to convince them to go back to the protest site," MS Randhawa, PRO, Delhi Police said.

Delhi: Police use water canons on protesters who were holding a candle march from Raj Ghat
to India Gate. Protestors are demanding justice for the Unnao rape victim who died yesterday. pic.twitter.com/Q4g9ETtDRe

— ANI (@ANI) December 7, 2019

Earlier in the day, massive protests broke out at the village of Unnao rape victim as two ministers from Yogi Adityanath’s Cabinet arrived there to visit the family members of the woman, who died Friday night after being set ablaze by the men accused of raping her. Angry locals shouted "why now" slogans as soon as the convoy of two ministers – Kamal Rani Varun and Swami Prasad Maurya – entered the village.

Workers of the Congress party launched massive protests in Lucknow against the rape case. The Uttar Pradesh police lathi charged on the Congress workers, who staged a protest against the Yogi Adityanath government in Hazratganj over the rising cases of crime against women in the state. UPCC Ajay Kumar Lallu was dragged by the police during the demonstrations. He was later taken into custody along with many others.

The 23-year-old Unnao rape victim who was airlifted to Delhi and admitted to Safdarjung Hospital with 90 per cent burns after being set on fire. After battling for life for almost 40 hours, the woman died following a cardiac arrest at 11.40 pm on Friday night, Doctors said.

“Despite our best efforts, she did not survive,” said Dr Shalab Kumar, Head of Burns and Plastic Surgery Department at the hospital. “Her condition deteriorated towards the evening. She had a cardiac arrest around 11:10 pm. We tried to resuscitate her, but she passed away around 11:40 pm,” he said.

The woman was set afire by five men, including two of her alleged rapists, on Thursday morning when she was going to Rae Bareli to attend a court hearing in the rape case filed by her.

She died on the day the four accused in the gang rape and murder case of a veterinary doctor in Hyderabad were killed in an ‘encounter’ with the Telangana police, triggering a tsunami of reactions across the  spectrum—ranging from appreciation to condemnation.

One of the two men accused of raping her last year was granted bail 10 days back. The other man had been on the run. All the five men involved in the Thursday morning attack were arrested within hours of the crime.

In a tweet, the Uttar Pradesh police had said the victim had lodged an FIR alleging that she had been raped between January 19 and December 12, 2018, by one of the accused on the pretext that he would marry her.

The accused was arrested then and got out on bail on November 25, police said. They had added that the probe into the incident is being conducted in a scientific manner and the circumstantial evidence being collected.

In a chilling recap, the woman had said in her statement to Sub Divisional Magistrate Dayashankar Pathak that she was attacked when she reached Gaura turn near her home. Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam Trivedi and Shubham Trivedi set her afire, she had said. She alleged that Shivam and Shubham Trivedi had abducted and raped her in December 2018. The FIR, however, was registered in March.

The sight of the woman running for help down an Unnao road sent shivers down the spines of local people. Ravindra, a local resident sitting by the roadside, said he called the police and the woman herself talked to them on phone.

Unnao has been in the spotlight after another young woman had accused former BJP MLA Kuldeep Sengar of raping her in 2017, when she was 17 years old.