Two women in Jharkhand, brutally attacked in separate incidents, died on Wednesday after struggling for life at hospitals. One was a 22-year-old acid attack victim, who died 45 days after suffering 75 per cent burns and the other a teenager allegedly gangraped and brutally thrashed four days ago.
Lata Kumari (name changed), whose brother-in-law had poured acid on her at her maternal house on June 17 following a family dispute that had led her to remarry, died at Sadar Hospital in Hazaribagh. She had been undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Jharkhand capital Ranchi and was discharged on July 26 following signs of recovery. But recurring complications and pain led her to be rushed to the Hazaribagh hospital on July 29, where she died on Wednesday.
“She had suffered 75 burns from the acid attack, which burnt down her chest area. Only her face was spared,” her father, Shivlal, said adding that doctors said she died of cardiovascular failure.
Following her second marriage reportedly months after a failed first marriage in 2011 with one Pintu Yadav of Chatra, her enraged brother-in-law from the first marriage, Sunil Yadav, attacked her with his friends. After his arrest, Yadav told the police he wanted to teach her a lesson for dumping his brother and her former husband, Pintu Yadav, who was murdered after the breakup and his body was found in a well.
A teenaged college girl in Ramgarh district, who was brutally raped and thrashed after five men abducted her on Sunday, died at the RIMS in Ranchi early on Wednesday, sparking public protests in Ramgarh. She had been in a coma due to severe head injuries during the sexual attack on her way back from college on July 27. Two of the three men were arrested on Monday. Chhotu Khan, an accused, told the police that the girl’s injuries were caused by a road accident rather than sexual attack. A medical report is yet to come.
In two more reported rapes in Jharkhand, a municipal ward member was allegedly gang-raped in Pakur district on Tuesday.