A 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped by four upper caste men in Uttar Pradesh. The accused also tried to choke her after the horrific crime. The teenager is now battling for her life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Aligarh.

In her statement to the police, the teen said that she was gang-raped when she went to collect fodder for animals on September 14.

Based on a complaint filed by her brother, the police arrested a man named Sandeep and charged him with attempt to murder under the provisions of SC/ST Act.

The victim’s family had earlier alleged that the man attempted to kill her over some previous enmity and after the girl’s statement on Tuesday, rape charges were added to the FIR and three more men were booked.

Congress leader Sheoraj Jivan Valmiki met the victim’s family and demanded strict action against the police for delaying the process of recording the girl’s statement. The Additional Superintendent of Police, Prakash Kumar, however, claimed that the statement couldn’t be recorded earlier as the girl was in the ICU after she was referred to Aligarh Medical College from Hathras district hospital.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Vice President, Deepak Kumar, met the survivor and alleged that the family was being threatened. He said that he would submit a detailed report on the case to General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and party state chief Ajay Kumar Lallu.

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