A Dalit teen was shot five times in the head and killed allegedly by three youths who she had stood up to for molesting her in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

The Class XI student, a resident of Premnagar in Firozabad district, was returning from school when the three youths — identified as Manish Yadav, Sopali Yadav and Gaurav Chak — allegedly molested her.

“She had told us about the incident after returning home. At night, we were walking on the terrace after dinner when the youths came on a motorbike, entered our house and shot my daughter. We rushed downstairs and found her lying in a pool of blood. The trio ran away on seeing us,” the father of the 16-year-old girl told police on Saturday.

“These youths have been molesting and harassing girls in the area for the past several months. Residents know these are criminals, so they avoid lodging a police complaint,” the father said.

His daughter had protested when the trio attacked her, the father said. “They had misbehaved with my daughter in the past also and I had told the police about it. But I had never imagined that they would kill my daughter for standing up to them.”

Sachindra Patel, the senior superintendent of police, said Manish and Sopali had been arrested. The officer said the killers had pumped five bullets into the girl’s head.