New Delhi: A 17-year-old girl attempted suicide on Monday after she was allegedly gangraped by three men in Odisha's Rayagada town last week. The victim took sleeping pills and when that failed, she set herself ablaze.
The girl, who sustained 80 per cent burns, was shifted from the local hospital to a hospital in Vishakapatnam in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh after her condition deteriorated. The police said the girl who was an orphan, stayed with her grandmother and worked in a shop. She was picked up by the three men while she was going back home from work.
The parents of the teenager had died and she was staying with her grandmother at Angiapeta village under Rayagada police station. The three men, who were later arrested, had allegedly raped her on the evening of January 2. Unable to cope with the humiliation, she kept mum for a day and tried to set herself ablaze the next day when her grandmother was not at home.
The incident which came to light only on Monday sparking anger among the people, following which the administration shifted the victim to a private hospital at Vishakapatnam. The state government would bear all the medical expenses, said Rayagada DC Sashi Bhushan Padhi. SDPO (Rayagada) VN Rao said the three accused - Muna Chhatriya, Malik Patria and Bharat Khosla - all aged below 20 years, have been arrested.
"The accused are being interrogated. They will be produced in court after medical examination," he said. Meanwhile, several organisations, including students and political parties, staged protests in Rayagada town condemning the incident. The Rayagada district unit of Congress staged a road blockade for a few hours at Kapilash chowck and demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation to the victim.
SP's Odisha unit president Rabi Behera demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation for the victim. The Rayagada District Bar Association decided not to defend the accused persons in court.
With Additional Inputs from PTI
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