Unnao victim's uncle alleges threat, SIT to probe incident

A day after a woman was set afire by five men, including two accused of raping her, her uncle has alleged that he has been threatened with “dire consequences” by relatives of the accused.

The victim’s uncle, who lives in a rented house and runs a small shop, told reporters that a relative of the accused Shivam had called him and threatened that he will have to face “dire consequences”.

“Your shop will be set on fire and will not let you live,” the victim’s uncle described the caller as saying. “I am going to inform the police and demand action in this regard,” he said. Police have not yet received any complaint in the matter.

The rape survivor from Unnao, who was airlifted to Delhi and admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital, is extremely critical and on a ventilator, doctors attending to her said. The rape survivor suffered 90% burns after five men, including two rape accused, allegedly set her on fire while she was on her way to court, police said.

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 Thursday morning attack were arrested within hours and the victim airlifted in the evening from the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Hospital in Lucknow to Delhi.

Also read: Rape victim set afire in UP’s Unnao airlifted to Delhi hospital

A five-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted by the Divisional Commissioner, Lucknow to probe the Unnao incident. “I visited the spot in Unnao on Thursday evening and constituted a five-member SIT led by Unnao ASP Vinod Pandey.

The team will probe all aspects of the case and submit a report to me,” Divisional Commissioner Mukesh Meshram said. He, however, did not disclose the time-frame given to the SIT to submit its report. “The report will come to me soon and I will forward it to the government,” Meshram said.

The five men, who have been arrested for the alleged assault on her life, are Harishankar Trivedi, Ram Kishore Trivedi, Umesh Bajpai, Shivam and Shubham Trivedi. Of the five, Shivam and Shubham Trivedi are accused in the rape case. One of them was arrested and subsequently released on bail.