Shahjahanpur, March 24: A 21-year-old woman succumbed to death at a hospital in Lucknow on Tuesday over a month after she was set afire and abandoned near a highway in Uttar Pradesh’s Shahjahanpur on February 22.

 

The four accused, including a female college mate of the victim, were arrested from different places on Friday on the basis of the girl's statement. The four accused have been booked under 376D (gang-rape), 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) among other sections of the IPC.

 

In her statement to the police, she has recorded before at a magistrate at a hospital in Lucknow where she is undergoing treatment, the victim said her friend had told her to meet a cousin at an orchard near Rai Kheda village on Monday. She left the college through a broken boundary wall while her father was waiting for her at the main gate.

 

The friend did not show up and instead, the three accused tried to gang-rape the victim. The accused poured kerosene on her and set her ablaze when she resisted, Superintendent of Police (SP) S Anand told Life News. The victim's friend had on previous occasions, tried to make her talk to other boys in their class and even arranged a video call with her cousin, who is one of the accused.

 

All four accused have denied that they were involved in the crime, SP Anand said adding that an investigation in the case is underway. As many as four police teams have been deployed to work the case. SP S Anand said that the accused will now be booked for murder as well after thorough investigations in the case.