Dies nearly 3 weeks after incident; no charge sheet filed yet

The 14-year-old Class X girl who was allegedly set ablaze by a group of men at her residence in Meerut’s Sardhana on August 17, succumbed to her injuries on Tuesday at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

She had sustained 20%-25% burn injuries.

Her family has demanded stringent action against the six accused.

Sardhana police station incharge Dilip Singh confirmed to The Hindu that the girl died at 7 a.m. in Delhi.

Mr. Singh added that five of the six accused have been arrested. “The arrested have been denied bail by the court. We are gathering evidence and have scanned the call details of the accused. We will file a charge sheet soon,” he said.

Mr. Singh said that Rajvansh Bagdi and his father Devendra; Rohit Saini and his father Gajraj; and Deepak, have been arrested. Aman is still absconding.

The six accused face charges for attempt to murder, trespass, rioting and criminal intimidation, besides provisions of the POCSO Act.

‘Was being stalked’

Mr. Singh said that the victim’s family had complained that the girl was regularly being stalked by local youths when she went for tuition.

On August 17, Rajvansh Bagdi allegedly gave her a mobile phone saying that he would call her at midnight. The incident forced the girl to stop going to tuition.

She narrated the incident to her father and when Rajvansh called on the phone, the girl’s father told him to stop the harassment.

The next day the girl’s father went to Rajvansh’s family to complain about the incident. While he was there, four men barged into the victim’s house and allegedly poured kerosene on the girl and set her ablaze.

During the probe, two Ghaziabad police constables were sacked for allegedly trying to protect Rohit.

The officers had allegedly entered into a conspiracy and arrested the accused in a bogus case of liquor smuggling at the Link Road police station.

The police officers were allegedly bribed by the relatives of the accused.