In a chilling incident in Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, a 19-year-old woman was hacked to death in broad daylight by two brothers, one of whom was previously accused of raping her, according to police reports on Tuesday morning.
The accused Ashok and Pawan Nishad had recently been granted bail just days before committing the heinous murder.
The deceased woman was hacked to death with an axe on the main road on Tuesday.
She had previously accused Pawan Nishad of raping her three years ago when she was a minor. The murder unfolded in front of terrified villagers who could do nothing to intervene.
According to an NDTV report, Pawan, along with his associates, had been relentlessly harassing the woman since the rape accusation, pressuring her to withdraw the case filed against him.
Reportedly, Ashok Nishad, Pawan's brother, had a separate murder charge and had been released less than 48 hours before the young woman's tragic end.
The police further said that Pawan was recently released from jail and hatched a plan with Ashok to confront the woman's family and coerce them into closing the case. Despite their efforts, the resilient young woman refused to yield. In retaliation, the brothers ambushed and brutally murdered her as she returned from grazing her family's cattle in a nearby field, according to the police account.
As of now, Pawan and Ashok Nishad are on the run, leaving a community in shock and raising questions about the safety and justice for survivors of sexual assault in the region.
Kaushambi Superintendent of Police, Brijesh Srivastava in a statement said, "In Dherha village of Mahewaghat police station, there was a dispute between two parties of the same community due to old rivalry and litigation, in which people of one party attacked and killed a 20-year-old girl of the other party with a sharp weapon," which was posted on X by the Kaushambi Police.
In 2021, Uttar Pradesh documented more than 56,000 instances of crimes against women, marking the highest number among all states, as reported by the National Crime Records Bureau.
