NEW DELHI: Sunita (name changed) spoke softly through intense pain. Her entire body, except the face, was heavily bandaged as she lay on a bed at a city government hospital with 75-80% burns. “I wish I was dead. Nobody wants to go through this torture. But at least people will not rape me now that I am burnt,” she sobbed.

TOI met Sunita in hospital where she is being treated after she tried to immolate herself at her friend’s house in Uttar Pradesh on April 28, 2019. Her shocking story — sold by her father for Rs 10,000, allegedly raped by several men while the UP cops repeatedly ignored her complaints. The 23-year-old’s ordeal began early in life. “My father got me married off in 2009, when I was just 14. My much older husband abandoned me within a few months.” (TOI had mistakenly reported that the husband had died).

Within a few weeks, she was allegedly sold off by her father so that “he could buy things for his wife”. “My second husband was evil. He got me raped repeatedly by his friends and because people got to know about me being raped and harassed, they thought I was vulnerable and ‘available’. Over 20 men have raped me and threatened to throw acid on me,” she said.

Struggling to speak through excruciating pain, Sunita alleged that no matter how hard she tried to get justice, she never got any – “neither from my father nor the police”. “I lodged different complaints but was always told ‘jaanch ki ja rahi hai’. No FIR was registered from October 2018 to April 2019. I became hopeless and so decided to take my life,” she sobbed.

Her second “husband” was a friend of her father. “He thrashed me every day, raped me and forced me to work as a household help at his friends’ houses”. Unable to speak further, she looked the other side and started to cry profusely. Pointing at her friend, Rishabh (name changed), to whom she confided, Sunita said he has been her only support through all the pain.

“Her parents, two brothers and a sister have disowned her. There is nobody whom she can call her own and this is the time she needs me the most — as a friend and a partner. There is no way I’m going to leave her alone,” Rishabh said. “She has three children, one from her first husband, one from the second and the third from one of the men who raped her,” he alleged.

He said all three kids were with the second husband. “He keeps them with him to use them as weapons so that she returns to him”. After changing two hospitals in Hapur , Sunita was finally brought to Delhi. She said to be in a stable but critical condition. “Her father is to be blamed for all her trauma,” Rishabh alleged. Rishabh said he was waiting for her to recuperate and would marry her after she legally got a divorce. The FIR, however, says the two have already got married and also got it registered on April 22, 2019. The complaint also says she set herself ablaze at a rented accommodation in Moradabad .

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In Video: Sold and gangraped, UP widow sets herself on fire