The father of a gangrape victim died by suicide in Uttar Pradesh’s Hamirpur district on Wednesday, police said.
The suicide of the 45-year-old man came days after his daughter and niece also died by suicide after being allegedly gang-raped at a brick kiln in Kanpur's Ghatampur area.
The family members alleged that the minor girls were gang-raped after being forced to consume liquor. All three accused were arrested by the Kanpur Police under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to the family members, the father was under pressure to withdraw the complaint in the gangrape case. His body was found hanging from a tree late on Wednesday, about two km from his house.
Speaking to the media, Hamirpur's Superintendent of Police (SP) Deeksha Sharma confirmed the suicide, saying the reason behind the extreme step was not yet known.
Congress General Secretary Prinkaya Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the Uttar Pradesh government in a post on X.
Two minor girls, victims of gang rape, committed suicide in Kanpur. Now the father of those girls has also committed suicide. It is alleged that pressure was being put on the victim's family to compromise. In Uttar Pradesh, if victimised girls and women ask for justice, it has become a rule to destroy their families. From Unnao, Hathras to Kanpur – wherever women were tortured, their families were destroyed. Being a woman has become a crime in this jungle raj where there is no such thing as law left," she said in her post which was in Hindi.
"After all, what should crores of women of the state do, where should they go?" she added.
