A 24-year-old woman who allegedly attempted self-immolation outside the Supreme Court along with her male friend succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday. The man had suffered 65 percent injuries and died on August 21.
They set themselves on fire on August 16 and broadcasted the whole incident on Facebook live in which she named some police officers and accused them of harassing her for filing a rape complaint.
On 1 May 2019, the deceased had filed a rape case against Bahujan Samaj Party MP from Ghosi, Atul Rai for which he is still in prison. In the complaint, she submitted that Rai raped her on March 5 after inviting her on the pretext of meeting his wife.
In December 2020, she filed a defamation complaint against Rai accusing him of maligning her image on social media. As per the UP police, the woman also alleged that Atul Rai and members of the Mukhtar Ansari gang were threatening her and her family in connection to the rape case.
In the Facebook live which lasted for almost 10 minutes, the woman and the man were seen pouring inflammable liquid to set themselves on fire. She alleged that few senior IPS officers and a judge from Uttar Pradesh were part of a nexus and were backing the accused.
“We decided this over the last couple of weeks … you serve us as many non-bailable warrants as you please. Atul Rai is everything for you people and society, release him. This is a nexus and we have been trapped,” said the deceased man in the video.
In the video, she and her friend had accused SSP Amit Pathak, CO Amresh Singh, Inspector Sanjay Rai, and his son Vivek Rai, former IG Amitabh Thakur.
In March 2021, the woman had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking transfer of her case from Prayagraj to Delhi citing a threat to her life.
The complaint was filed a week after the MP had filed his nomination for the Loksabha election. He was absconding but later surrendered on June 22 after winning the elections.
A Varanasi court denied him protection against arrest while noting that 16 cases are already registered against him.
Non-bailable Warrant Against Rape Victim
The police had registered a case under Section 309 (attempt to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code and have suspected that her male friend had convinced her to take the step.
The police have also claimed that the duo took the extreme step as the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against them in a case of forgery for allegedly submitting the wrong proof of age in the rape case.
Other Angle of Case: Woman Accused of Honey Trapping
In 2020, an FIR was registered against the woman after Rai’s brother Pawan Kumar filed a complaint accusing her of forging her marksheet submitted in the court.
She was booked under Section 419 (cheating by personation), Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), Section 467 (forgery of valuable security, will), Section 468 (purpose of cheating), Section 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.
In 2015, the woman had filed a molestation case against student leader Amritesh Singh alias Sabal.
Pawan Kumar had found discrepancies in the documents provided by the complainant in two different complaints. In the 2015 complaint, she had mentioned her date of birth as 10 March 1997 while in Rai’s case, the date of birth mentioned was 10 June 1997. So, he filed an FIR against the woman accusing her of running a honey trapping racket.
