(By Uchechukwu Udoji)
Hundreds of women staged protests in West Bengal after an 11-year-old girl was soaked in kerosene and burned to death by men who tried to rape her.
The youngster from Salkia in Howrah, near Kolkata in the eastern Indian state, died in hospital four days after neighbours found her in flames and screaming for help.
In her last words she allegedly accused two men she recognised of setting her on fire after she threatened to tell her parents of their attempt to rape on her.
Two local men, Kundan Mullick and Suraj Mullick, have been arrested in connection with the attempted rape and murder, Howrah police told the Times of India.
The girl, whose name has not been released, was rushed to hospital last Wednesday after she was found by neighbours. Her landlady Sikha Mondal was among those who witnessed the grisly scene.
Mrs Mondal said: ‘The girl, before fainting on my hands, said when she had gone to the ground nearby to relieve herself, Kundan appeared from the bush, gagged her and tried to open her clothes.
‘She then bit Kundan on his hands, pushed him back and tried to run away. Kundan then pushed her from behind, and when she stumbled and fell on the ground he threw some liquid on her and set her ablaze.’
Since the girl was too ill to speak from her hospital bed, her last words to her landlady are being taken as her dying statement, police said.
The girl’s father had earlier told the Times Of India that Kundan, who was arrested on Saturday, had threatened his family after a ‘scuffle’ with his wife a few days before.
He accused the suspect of trying to rape his daughter ‘in revenge’ and then setting her on fire after she recognised him and threatened to tell her parents everything.
Doctors said she had suffered 70 per cent burns.
Around 500 women from the area staged protests in front of the local police station, blocking roads and demanding that the suspects be hanged.
