Dalit girl attacked for resisting rape, one held

LUCKNOW - A teenaged Dalit girl was subjected to brutal attack and one of her ears nearly chopped off while resisting a rape attempt by three youths of her village in Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur district, police said Sunday. One man has been arrested.

The teenager was attacked late Saturday with a sharp-edged weapon in Udauli village in Fatehpur, about 120 km from here.

“The 17-year-old girl was attacked with a sharp weapon, causing deep gashes on her face and hands, while one of her ears was nearly chopped off,” said Special Director General of Police Brij Lal.

Fatehpur Superintendent of Police Ram Bharose told IANS over phone: The girl was intercepted by three young men while she was returning from the fields.

They tried to gag her and tear off her clothes in an attempt to gang rape her, but the girl used all her strength to resist the assault and raised a loud scream, which alerted some villagers,” he said.

“Realizing that they would not succeed in their intended game, they left the girl but not before one of them fished out a sharp-edged weapon with which he hit at her, leaving her critically injured,” he added.

But the police officer said it seemed to be “a fallout of an altercation between the girls family members and one of the accused, Hari Shankar, during the panchayat elections about two months ago.

“We have arrested Hari Shankar and are on the trail of the other two, who would also be tracked down soon.”