Burnt alive after rape slur

Hyderabad, June 01: An alleged rapist was beaten unconscious, dragged out of a police van and burnt alive in a bonfire by 200 villagers who later dared cops to arrest the entire hamlet.

All that was left of 20-year-old Babu by the time a larger team of cops arrived at the spot in Andhra’s Warangal were his charred limbs.

Prabhakar Rao, the SP (rural), said the villagers of Raghunathpalli had told him that they had meted out “true justice”.

The 16-year-old girl, whom Babu assaulted and hit on the head with a hammer when she tried to resist, has been moved to Hyderabad’s Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences, around 150km away.

Police said neighbours rushed to the girl’s house hearing her screams and caught Babu. They tied his limbs, beat him with sticks and left him writhing in pain in the village square with hundreds watching the scene.

The police arrived a little later, saved the youth and then got busy arranging an ambulance for the girl. But the sight of her being lifted into the vehicle with her head bloodied sent the mob went into a frenzy. The villagers quickly made a bonfire of hay, pounced on Babu as he lay unconscious in the police van and flung him into the inferno. The policemen, outnumbered, fled the spot. By the time a larger team arrived, it was too late.

In 2008, two youths were killed in a police encounter a day after throwing acid on two girls in Warangal. One of the girls died, while the other was maimed for life.

–Agencies