india

Updated: Dec 08, 2019 07:10 IST

The death of a 24-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao on Friday a day after five men, including her two alleged rapists, assaulted and set her on fire has brought a spate of sexual assaults reported in the district over the last 11 months under the spotlight. As many as 51 cases of rape have been registered in Unnao over this period, according to the Uttar Pradesh police data.

Police said that 185 cases of stalking and attempt to rape have also been registered between January to November this year in Unnao. “...during the past two years, 24 minors have also been raped in the district...,’’ said Renu Yadav, a police officer posted in the district.

Unnao police superintendent Vikrant Veer said that they had registered 52 cases of rape this year before one of them was dropped after the charges were found to be bogus.

Unnao is located 60 km from Lucknow. It hit the headlines after expelled Bharatiya Janata Party lawmaker Kuldeep Sengar was accused of raping a woman on the pretext of getting her employment when she was a minor in 2017.

Unnao was again in the news this summer when the woman’s two aunts were killed while she was critically wounded along with her lawyer when a truck rammed the car they were travelling in.

Sachin Dixit, a local activist, said the data can be misleading as many cases are not reported at all. “A case was registered against Sengar only after the woman attempted suicide outside the chief minister’s residence in Lucknow.”