A 23-year-old alleged rape victim is fighting for her life after she was set on fire while going to court in northern India.<\/p>\n
The woman was on her way to a hearing in the case she filed against two men in March, in Uttar Pradesh.<\/p>\n
She is in critical condition in hospital, where she is being treated for severe burns.<\/p>\n
Five men including two of her alleged rapists have been arrested on suspicion of setting her on fire, police say.<\/p>\n
The woman was on her way to a train station when a group of men assaulted her and dragged her to a nearby field, where they set her on fire,\u00a0according to reports in local media<\/a>.<\/p>\n The incident occurred in Unnao district, which was recently in the news over another rape case.<\/p>\n Police opened a murder investigation against a ruling party lawmaker<\/a>\u00a0in July after a woman who accused him of rape was seriously injured in a car crash.<\/p>\n Two of her aunts were killed and her lawyer was injured.<\/p>\n This latest incident has sparked widespread outrage in India, which is still reeling under a shocking murder and rape case that grabbed headlines just under a week ago.<\/p>\n A 27-year-old vet in the southern city of Hyderabad was raped and set on fire<\/a>\u00a0on 27 November. Protests were held across the country after the victim’s charred remains were found following her disappearance last week.<\/p>\n Rape and sexual violence against women have been in focus in India since the December 2012 gang-rape and murder of a young woman on a bus in the capital, Delhi. But there has been no sign that crimes against women are abating.<\/p>\n According to the latest government crime figures, police registered 33,658 cases of rape in India in 2017 – that’s an average of 92 rapes every day.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"