Main accused arrested in Dalit girl attack

FATEHPUR - The main accused has been arrested in the brutal attack on a teenaged Dalit girl who was maimed for resisting rape, police said Monday.

“Shiv Om, who was absconding after attacking the girl Saturday, was arrested today (Monday) from a village here,” police inspector Prem Chandra told reporters in Fatehpur, some 250 km from Lucknow.

According to police, three people are accused of attacking the girl. While two of them have been arrested, another is still at large.

“Before Shiv Om, we had arrested Hari Shanker. The third accused is still absconding. Efforts are on to nab him also,” he added.

The teenage girl was attacked late Saturday with a sharp-edged weapon in Udauli. She is now undergoing treatment in a Kanpur hospital.

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

Fatehpur Superintendent of Police Ram Bharose had 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 resisted the assault and screamed to alerted the villagers,” he said.

“Realising that they had failed in the attempt, one of the gang hit her with a sharp weapon, leaving her critically injured,” he added.

The police officer also said it seemed to be “a fallout of an altercation between the girl’s family members and one of the accused, Hari Shankar, during the panchayat elections about two months ago”.