NEW DELHI (TIP): Relatives and associates of a rape accused have allegedly slit the tongue of the victim in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place on July 10, just a fortnight before the victim was to give her testimony before a designated court in Pratapgarh District.

The victim was allegedly raped in January this year. Interacting with reporters, a relation of the girl, Raj Kumar, said that a brother of the main accused and some other unidentified men attacked the rape victim and attempted to chop off the girl’s tongue. “These men were hiding near a stream and when the girl went there for nature’s call, they attacked her. They sat on her chest, took out her tongue and slit it.

They kicked her and injured her limbs,” he said. The main accused in the case is currently in judicial custody. Commenting on the incident, Pratapgarh District Superintendent of Police LR Kumar said a case has been filed against the brother of the main accused in the rape case. Meanwhile, social activists in New Delhi condemned this gory act. Social activist Annie Raja, the wife of D Raja, National Secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI), said, “Time and again such issues are coming up and it is high time.

Government should taker note of it and take action against that and send a serious strong signal against these criminals. Government of UP (Uttar Pradesh) has failed in that. That’s why such things are happening repeatedly, and every day.”