17-yr-old rape victim dies after sleeping pills overdose

A 17-year-old victim of rape, in a case where the accused is an elderly newspaper owner, has died after allegedly taking an overdose of sleeping pills in Bhopal, an official said Thursday.

The girl was admitted to Government Hamidia Hospital in Bhopal on Monday night after she consumed sleeping pills at a shelter home in the Madhya Pradesh capital.

Her condition was critical and she died on Wednesday night, the hospital's superintendent, Dr I D Chourasia, said.

The autopsy will be done soon, he added.

In July last year, a case was registered against the accused Pyare Miya, 68, who runs a local newspaper, of raping five minor girls on several occasions.

The girl who took sleeping pills was one of the victims, Inspector General, Bhopal range, Upendra Jain said on Wednesday.

The five victims had been kept in a government shelter home in view of the security.

Of them, two girls fell ill and were admitted to the hospital on Monday night, the police official said.

One of them allegedly consumed an excess dose of sleeping pills, he said, adding that the district collector had ordered the magisterial inquiry into the matter.

Kamla Nagar police station in-charge Vijay Sisodia on Wednesday said an inquiry is underway to find out how the girl got sleeping pills in the shelter home.

Besides Miya, who had been arrested from Jammu and Kashmir, his accomplice Sweety Vishwakarma, 21, has also been booked for abetting the crime, police had said.

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

He 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 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.