Lucknow: A 23-year-old rape survivor fighting for her life with 90 per cent burns has told the Police this morning that she was thrashed and stabbed before being set on fire by five men near her village in Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. 

She was on her way to a Court hearing in her rape complaint yesterday when the men surrounded her near a railway station.  “At 4 am I was going to a local railway station to catch a train to Rae Bareli. Five people were waiting for me. They surrounded me and first hit me on the leg with a stick and also stabbed me in the neck with a knife. After that they poured petrol on me and set me on fire,” the woman told the Police from her hospital bed in Unnao.

“When I started shouting, a crowd collected and the Police was called,” she said. Her alleged rapist Shivam Trivedi, who was among the attackers, had been released on bail in the case five days ago. His co-accused Shubham Trivedi, who had been missing, also participated in the attack.