This Article is From Nov 04, 2013

Muzaffarnagar: woman living at relief camp alleges rape by two men

Muzaffarnagar: woman living at relief camp alleges rape by two men
Muzaffarnagar: Two young men have been arrested for allegedly raping a 19-year-old girl who was staying at a relief camp for people affected by the communal clashes in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district two months ago.

The incident reportedly took place at Fugana, which was one of the areas worst affected in the riots that left nearly 50 people dead and 40,000 homeless in September.

The girl's father told the police that she had stepped out of the relief camp at the Jogya Kheri village with her eight-year-old sister, and gone to the fields when the men attacked her.

The two accused, Sunil and Sachin, were from the Fugana village where the girl lived before her family was forced to take refuge at the relief camp a kilometre away.

On spotting the girl, the men allegedly dragged her to the sugarcane fields nearby and assaulted her. The police say villagers, alerted by the girl's crying sister, caught the men and thrashed them before handing them over to the police.

Based on the girl's complaint, the police have registered a case of gang-rape.

"I knew them. They were from the same village but they never harassed me before. I never spoke to them," said the girl, who is married and is living in the camp with her father and two sisters.

Thousands of people in Muzaffarpur have refused to leave relief camps and return to their villages, which speaks of lingering fear and uncertainty in the aftermath of the rioting that erupted after the killing of two Jat brothers and a Muslim boy in August.

A combination of incendiary political speeches and alleged administrative lapses led to clashes that forced the Akhilesh Yadav government to call in the army.

Tension returned last week to two villages, where fresh clashes led to four deaths.
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