Acid thrown on rape victim by four for refusing to withdraw case

A day before a rape victim was set afire in Unnao by two of her alleged rapists and three others, a 30-year-old woman faced acid attack by four men in a village near here for refusing to withdraw her complaint of rape against them from the court, police said on Saturday. The woman suffered 30 percent burns and is undergoing treatment at a Meerut hospital near here, they said.

The four men barged into the woman's house on Wednesday night and poured acid on her as she had been refusing to withdraw her complaint of rape against them, filed in a court here, said Circle Officer Girja Shanker Tripathi of Shahpur police station. The four men involved in the acid attack on the woman have been identified as Arif, Shahnawaz, Sharif, and Abid of Kaserva village, said, Tripathi.

"All four men are absconding but we will nab them soon," he added. The woman had earlier filed a complaint in a court here, accusing the four of raping her some time back, he said.

Explaining why the woman filed the complaint in the court instead of approaching the police, the sources in the department said the woman had earlier lodged the complaint with the police. But as no evidence of rape surfaced during the investigation, the police had to close the case, they said.

Tripathi said for the acid attack incident, a case under section 326 A of the Indian Penal Code -- an especially enacted penal provision in the wake of a spate of incidents of acid attacks -- has been registered by the police. The provision entails a jail term of ten years on conviction.

The other IPC sections, invoked in the FIR are sections 323 (causing hurt), 452 (trespassing into one's house with an intention to assault him or her), 504 (criminal insult) and 506 (criminal threat), he said.

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