On Tuesday, two infants were in critical condition after a group of men set fire to the home of an 11-year-old Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao. The men had previously raped the girl last year, and one of the infants was the victim’s six-month-old child, conceived during the assault, while the other was her two-month-old sister.

The rape victim’s infant son suffered 35 per cent burns and her sister 45 per cent burns in the incident, PTI reported.

“As their condition worsened, both the kids were sent to Kanpur for better treatment,” said chief medical superintendent Sushil Srivastava.

The accused men, who were recently released on bail, attacked the girl’s father with an axe five days before setting fire to the family’s home. The father had refused to withdraw the police case related to the gang rape of his daughter by the same men.

On Monday evening, the accused, along with five others, entered the family’s thatched shed after the girl refused to withdraw the case. The family has accused the local police of protecting the accused.

The two men who were released on bail after being accused of gang-raping a Dalit girl on February 13, 2022, entered the family’s thatched shed on Monday evening along with five other individuals. The girl had refused to withdraw the case against them. The police report that the victim gave birth to a son in September of the same year. The victim’s mother also alleges that their house was deliberately set on fire to kill her daughter’s infant son.