Hathras case: SIT was seen walking through the field where the incident occurred.
Hathras, Uttar Pradesh:
A special investigation team or SIT investigating the alleged gang rape and torture in Hathras of Uttar Pradesh of a young Dalit, who died last week, arrived in her village this morning. The investigation panel, made up of the government of Yogi Adityanath, visited the scene of the crime and cremation, and will present its report tomorrow.
The three-member panel was created by the state government amid immense criticism for its handling of the case. The team, accompanied by a forensic expert, was seen walking through the field where the incident occurred.
The investigation team also visited the site where the woman was cremated. Following the woman’s death in a Delhi hospital, the UP police took her body and forcibly cremated it in her village at 2.30 in the morning, refusing to hand it over to her family. The cremation site is not far from the woman’s family.
The task force is headed by UP Secretary of the Interior Bhagwan Swaroop, Deputy Inspector General of Police Chandraprakash and IPS officer Poonam.
The 20-year-old woman was assaulted by four men from the so-called upper caste community in her village on September 14 and left with horrific injuries that included fractures, a paralyzed spinal injury and a cut to her tongue. The UP police, accused of a slow response to the woman’s complaint, have alleged that there was no rape or gang rape and that a forensic report proves it. This assertion has been questioned by experts who point out that the samples were taken 11 days after the woman was attacked.
The victim was cremated in the middle of the night “to prevent large-scale violence” the next morning, the Uttar Pradesh government told the Supreme Court today, citing intelligence input from “major public order problems.”
In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, the UP government also justified the cremation at 2.30am by saying there was a high alert in the district due to the Babri mosque verdict a day later.
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