Uncle, cousin get life for raping Varanasi woman, setting her brother on fire

Varanasi: The uncle of a 22-year-old Varanasi woman was awarded life imprisonment Monday for repeatedly raping and impregnating her in 2012. The convict’s nephew (the woman’s distant cousin), too, was sentenced to life for aiding the rapist in setting the survivor’s brother ablaze in 2016.District and Sessions Judge Kuldeep Singh also fined each convict Rs 20,000. The survivor gave birth to a daughter in 2013.According to the prosecution, in 2012, the survivor’s uncle (then aged 35) persuaded his brother-in-law to send his daughter with him to Mumbai on the promise of arranging a job for her. He, however, took her to Mumbai and then Goa, where he confined and repeatedly raped her. He threatened to kill her and her family if she resisted the sexual assault, additional district govt counsel Manoj Kumar Gupta said.The survivor somehow escaped captivity and returned to her parental home in Varanasi on April 12, 2016. Police said her uncle continued to threaten her and her family, warning of dire consequences if she refused to return to him.On April 18, 2016, the uncle and his nephew (brother’s son) entered the survivor’s house in Sarnath area through a rear entrance. When her 20-year-old brother stepped outside, the duo poured petrol on him and set him afire, leaving him with critical burn injuries. He succumbed during treatment at a private hospital.Before fleeing the spot, the duo threatened to burn the survivor alive as well. Both were arrested in 2016 and remained incarcerated since then. Police had filed a chargesheet the same year.