SHAHJAHANPUR: Family members of four people arrested after a girl was set ablaze following an alleged rape bid here on Monday demanded a high-level probe into the case.
The arrests were made days after the girl was found with severe burns along a national highway in the district on February 22.
The girl is currently undergoing treatment a Lucknow hospital.
The victim, a student of BA (second year), studied at a college run by the Mumukshu Ashram of former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand.
She is a statement before said a magistrate had alleged that three people tried to rape her in a field at a village here on February 22 and when they did not succeed, they poured kerosene and set her on fire.
The fourth accused in the cases is a female friend of the girl who had allegedly sent her to the fields.
In a letter to Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sanjeev Bajpai, the accused's family members rejected the charge.
"The location of one of the accused was that of his house. One of the youths whom the girl had blamed for setting her ablaze was working in Uttarakhand's Rudrapur for some months. Police arrested him from Rudrapur. The girl changed her statements repeatedly. She also changed the name of her friend, who was sent to jail," they claimed, demanding a high-level probe.
Meanwhile, Bhim Army Ekta Mission's district president Dharmendra Kumar Gautam staged a dharna at the collectorate here, handing over a memorandum addressed to the UP chief minister to the City Magistrate.
He claimed innocent people have been framed in the case while the culprits have been shielded.