NHRC notice to UP govt, police chief over alleged rape, murder of Dalit girl

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state's police chief over the alleged rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Lakhimpur Kheri.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday sent a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the state's police chief over the alleged rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Lakhimpur Kheri. The commission in a statement observed that apparently, people with criminal intent have no fear and respect for law, and innocent women, particularly from the vulnerable classes of the society are easily targeted by them.

The 17-year-old girl was found dead outside her village in Lakhimpur Kheri, raped and murdered after she had left home to fill out a scholarship application on Tuesday. The NHRC has taken suo motu cognisance of media reports that the "Dalit girl was found raped and murdered in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh after she stepped out to fill a scholarship form online as she did not have internet access at home", the statement said. She was a first-generation learner in her family and had aspirations of landing a government job to lift her family out of poverty, the rights panel said.

The commission has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police, seeking a detailed report in four weeks. The report must mention the status of the statutory relief and any other assistance provided by the state government to the family of the victim, it said. "This is the duty of the state to make a fearless environment for its citizens so that they can live with respect and dignity," the NHRC statement said.

According to the media reports, carried on August, 27, the girl was murdered by a man whose marriage proposal she had rejected, the rights panel said. The man was arrested on Wednesday. The dead body was found on Tuesday in a dried pond in an area which falls under Neemgaon police station jurisdiction, it said.

Reportedly, the girl, second of four children of the family, was the one, the parents had pinned their hopes on. She had just passed class 9 and was about to start her class 10, the first one from her family to study up to that level, it said. The only source of income for the family is a two-bigha plot. The girl was aiming to get Scheduled Caste scholarship (Rs 2,220 annually) which would have helped ease some of the financial burden on the family, but before it could happen, she became the victim of a heinous crime, the state's said.