India
17 days, no justice for Bihar girl burnt alive for fighting molestation attempts
The accused poured kerosene over her and burned her alive.
Over two weeks ago, when the nation was engrossed in the Bihar elections, a 20-year-old woman in a small village in Bihar was burnt alive as she fought attempts of molestation by three men. In this heinous incident which took place on October 30, the accused poured kerosene over her and burned her alive in Rasoolpur village of Vaishali district. The victim succumbed to her injuries in the next 15 days.
The victim was also harassed by the accused for marriage, for which she repeatedly refused. As per the local reports, one of the accused Chandan Kumar Rai has been arrested, while the other two have absconded.
The victim’s mother, who is a tailor, has been protesting and has pleaded for justice for her daughter. In her video on social media, she is heard saying that her daughter was going to get married after four months. She has named Satish Kumar Rai and Chandan Kumar Rai as the accused, out of whom the latter has been arrested. “It’s been 17 days, and I am still waiting for justice,” she says.
The incident, which is said to have been deliberately kept under sheets due to the Bihar elections, has caught the eye of political leaders after the victim's death on November 15. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, asked on Twitter, "Whose actions are worse - those who committed this inhuman crime, or those who hid it for political motive?
किसका अपराध ज़्यादा ख़तरनाक है-
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) November 17, 2020
जिसने ये अमानवीय कर्म किया?
या
जिसने चुनावी फ़ायदे के लिए इसे छुपाया ताकि इस कुशासन पर अपने झूठे 'सुशासन' की नींव रख सके? pic.twitter.com/VDIeL19F3Q
The victim in this incident was Muslim, while the accused are Hindu. Will they call this love jihad, asked people who are angry that this incident hardly found any time in mainstream media's news coverage.
After a 21-year-old Hindu woman was harassed and murdered in Haryana for refusing to marry a Muslim man, it was called an instance of ‘love jihad’, following which, states like Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have been pushing for laws against love jihad. Netizens are questioning why is this incident not called love jihad, wherein a Muslim girl has been burned alive by Hindu men for fighting off molestation attempts?
