The Burning Woman

UP has the highest rate of crimes against women, and the district of Unnao has seen some of the State's most gruesome cases

- Zaina Azhar Sayeda

ON December 6, 2019, as India was reeling from a rape and murder of a veterinarian in Hyderabad, a 23-year-old woman ran down the streets of Unnao, in flames, crying for help. A resident of Hindu Nagar, the woman was on her way to a

Raebareli court to meet her lawyer. She was fighting a case against Shivam Trivedi and other accomplices for allegedly gang-raping her. As she made her way to the railway station, five people attacked her, including two accused in her case who were out on bail.

The individuals beat her with sticks, stabbed her, then doused her with kerosene, and set her ablaze. As a ball of fire, she ran until a local resident saw her and called the police. Grievously injured, she narrated the incident to the police on the phone, and named the accused.

Initially taken to a local hospital, the woman was then transferred to a Lucknow facility. Suffering 90 per cent burns, she was airlifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital. After a 36-hour battle, she died; her last words were a plea to her brother to ensure her murderers hanged.

Six years ago, the woman had filed an FIR detailing how she had been raped at gunpoint by her then-fiancé Shivam Trivedi. The perpetrators remain at large. According to her FIR, Trivedi took her to a rented room in Raebareli, and held her captive for over a month. Trivedi and his cousin Shubham repeatedly raped her, filmed the act, and tried to blackmail her into silence.

Systematic Betrayals

The woman was the youngest of seven children in a lower-caste, poor family. While Trivedi, who lived in the same village, belonged to an influential, upper-caste Hindu family. She alleged that Trivedi had taken her to Raebareli saying they’d get married in a civil court.

On December 12, the accused arrived at her home and asked her to come with him to a nearby temple to get married. They raped her at gunpoint, states her FIR.