In a shocking incident, a Dalit girl was thrown into a fire allegedly by an 18-year-old youth, who objected to her passing through a road next to his house in a hamlet, about 40 km from the temple town of Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

The six-year-old girl was pushed into hot ashes of burning refuse on Tuesday by accused Sunny following an altercation as she passed through the road along with her mother in Tarauli Janubi area, police sources said. The girl is in a critical condition in a hospital in Mathura with 50 per cent burns.

Senior Superintendent of Police, Mathura, R K Chaturvedi said the accused was arrested on Tuesday night on charges of attempt to murder and under sections 3 and 4 of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Protection of Civil Rights) Act.

"We are thinking of taking more serious action against the accused under the Gangsters Act.We want a message to go so that nobody does such a thing in future," he said, but denied that the road was meant for only upper caste people.

"It is wrong. It is a general road and everybody was moving on it. There were so many women and children going through that road. The road was never obstructed by people and it was an act of an individual," he said.

The arrested youth, however, told the police that he had not pushed the girl into the hot ashes and that it was an 'accident'.

Giving details about the incident, Chaturvedi said: "Basically, it is an act of an individual. There is no previous history or any background of enmity."

According to the girl's father, Soudan, "My daughter was passing by the youth's house. He objected to her doing so. When he tried to stop her, she got scared. He then pushed her into the fire."