Hathras gang-rape victim’s family is due to appear before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court amid tight security on Monday. The 19-year-old Dalit woman was abducted from field and gang-raped by four upper caste men in her village on September 14. The victim died in a Delhi hospital on September 29. The incident prompted nationwide outrage. The UP government has come under immense pressure over handling of the case especially after the alleged negligence followed by whisking off the body from the Delhi hospital and the subsequent 2 am cremation, keeping her family locked up.
Sub Divisional Magistrate, Anjali Ganwar spoke to news agency ANI and said that the family left Hathras earlier this morning. She said she is going with them and proper security arrangements have been made. The district magistrate and superintendent of police is also accompanying them, she added.
A senior police officer Vineet Jaiswal told ANI that there is sufficient security for the victim’s family. The local police are in touch with the family and nearby villages. Officials have been conducting peace meetings in the nearby villages and appealed to them not to pay attention to the rumours.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team reached Hathras on Sunday and asked the local administration to handover some documents related to the case.
On October 1, the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court had taken suo motu cognizance of Hathras incident and a division bench of Justice Rajan Roy and Justice Jaspreet Singh had sought response from Uttar Pradesh additional chief secretary, state police chief and state DGP and had asked them to explain how the incidents unfolded before the court on October 12.
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The court said the incidents which took place after the death of the victim on September 29, 2020, leading up to her cremation, as alleged, have shocked our conscience. Therefore, we are taking suo moto cognizance of the same.