Two rape victims shot dead in UP, one was to appear in court 2 days later

Mau/Sitapur: Two rape victims were shot dead on Sunday in separate incidents in Uttar Pradesh with one of them being fatally attacked just two days before she had to appear in a court as a witness in the case.

The twin attacks on rape victims were condemned by opposition Congress which slammed the SP government for the "increasing lawlessness" in the state.

Police said that an 18-year-old rape victim was shot dead allegedly by bike-borne youths in Baijapur village in Dakshintola area in Mau district, two days before she had to appear in a court as witness in the case.

The incident occurred when the girl along with her brother was going to visit a doctor, and died of bullet injuries on the spot, they said.

The girl was allegedly raped on June 6, 2011 by one B K Singh, Manager of a college, police said, adding the case was going on in the local court, where she had to appear as witness after two days.

The victim's family members have alleged that she was killed upon the directions of the rape accused, they said.

Additional Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh said the guilty will not be spared.

In the second incident, a 23-year-old woman was shot dead allegedly by a rape accused against whom she had lodged a complaint last year in Mahmudpur village in Sitapur, police said.

The incident took place when the woman was going with her husband on bicycle and the accused, Pradeep, shot her dead, police said.

Pradeep had come out of the jail about two months back and was pressurising the woman to withdraw the rape case she had lodged against him, they said.

The body has been sent for post-mortem, police said.

Efforts are on to nab the accused, they added.

"My sister was raped and the case was going on. After holi, he (accused) got bail and started threatening us during her wedding.

"My mother reported it to police after which the accused threatened to shoot her. Pradeep shot at my sister at her in-laws' place," said the brother of the 18-year-old victim in the Mau incident.

The girl, who belonged to Mehmoodpur village, was married in Pritampur village and both these villages come under the same police station, a police official said.

"The victim's husband had come to take his wife. When they came out far away from the village, a person belonging to the village shot at the woman. According to investigation so far, a rape case was registered against the culprit and that appears to be the cause of enmity," the official said.

Reacting to the incident, senior Congress leader and MLA from Lucknow Cantt constituency, Rita Bahuguna Joshi said that all women in the nation are shocked.

"Until now, there were rapes and cases were being subverted and inquiries were not done properly but now we find that the girls are being shot dead. We have always been arguing that there should be a fast track court and good judgement, but we find that the police doesn't really investigate the case properly," she said.

By the time the case goes to court, the girl's family already comes under a lot of pressure. In UP, the lawlessness is upto such an extent that now these murders are happening so blatantly, she further said.