Assaults on Women in Uttar Pradesh Continue Unabated, Two More Found Hanging from Tree

There seems to be no respite for women in the heartland of Uttar Pradesh from brutal sexual assaults, as another case of rape and murder surfaced on Thursday.

In a chilling déjà vu of the Badaun double rape case, where two teenage girls were raped and hanged from a tree, another teenager was found hanging from a tree in Morabadad district on Thursday, while a 45-year-old woman from a backward caste was found dead in a similar manner in Bahraich, reported NDTV.

The family of the 16-year-old has alleged rape and murder of their daughter, while the 45-year-old's son has alleged gangrape and murder by the liquor mafia. However, pathological reports were still awaited.

The body of the 45-year-old was found in a semi-nude condition hanging with a saree from a tree in Ranipur area, Additional Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Singh, told PTI.

Incidentally, the teenage girl was found hanging in Rajapur Milak Village on Thursday morning just 160 kilometers from the national capital where UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is scheduled to meet global investors as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Yadav has been at the receiving end of national outrage over his government's inability to check crimes against women, particularly after the case of two teenaged cousins found hanging from a tree in Badaun in Uttar Pradesh on 28 May. The incident had caught global attention for the heinous nature of crime, and Yadav had faced flak for stating that rapes were happening everywhere else and not just in his state.

The two deaths that seem unsettlingly similar to the Badaun case, which the Central Bureau of Investigation is now probing, are yet another reminder of the deplorable state of affairs in one of the country's largest states.

In Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur district, a woman was allegedly gangraped by police officials inside the police station on Monday, according to Zee News. The incident occurred when the woman went to the Sumerpur police station to meet her detained husband, who was held for possessing a pistol.

Several other cases of rape and crime have also been reported from different parts of the state in the recent past, leading the opposition to demand Samajwadi Party government's resignation.

On Tuesday, the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party had staged a walkout from Rajya Sabha over the flailing law and order situation in the state.

The chief minister and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav have failed to deal with the situation effectively, brushing off responsibility with insensitive comments to the media.