Sleeping Pills Overdose Kills Rape Victim In Bhopal

Bhopal: A 17-year-old rape victim who was hospitalized in a critical condition after she allegedly overdosed on sleeping pills at a shelter home in Bhopal succumbed to death, an official said Thursday.

The girl has been admitted to Government Hamidia Hospital on Monday night after she consumed sleeping pills at a shelter home in the Madhya Pradesh capital, where she was put on ventilator support. Her condition was too critical and she died on Wednesday night. The autopsy will soon be performed.

The accused, identified as Pyare Miya (68), runs a local newspaper. Besides Miya, who had been arrested from Jammu and Kashmir, his accomplice Sweety Vishwakarma (21) has been booked for abetting the crime.

In July last year, a case was registered against the accused Miya, for allegedly raping five minor girls on different occasions. And all the five victims have been kept in a government-run shelter home here to ensure their safety. The victim was one of the five put in the shelter. Of the other four, two girls fell ill and were admitted to the hospital on Monday night as well. The Bhopal district collector has said to have ordered a magisterial inquiry into the matter and a report is awaited.

In July, the police had claimed to have seized porn CDs, high-end cars, liquor bottles, and bones of wild animals, among other things, during raids on premises linked to Miya.

Miya is facing charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

The police have also invoked the Excise Act and the Wildlife Act following the seizure of liquor, an antler, and bones of wild animals from his flats, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as two of the victims belong to these communities.