Updated: October 13, 2020 10:09:47 pm
A 19-year-old Dalit girl was attacked, allegedly by four upper caste men in Hathras, UP. In photo: Security in the area (Express photo by Vishal Srivastava)
A team from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrived in Hathras on Tuesday, beginning the investigation into the alleged gangrape and murder of a 19 year old dalit girl by four upper caste men.
Sources said the 15-member team, including forensic experts, arrived in Hathras around 11:30 a.m. and went first to the crime scene, where they recreated the incident and videotaped the proceedings. The forensic team did a detailed examination of the scene, the sources said. The brother of the deceased was also called to the scene.
The team spent around three hours at the scene before heading to the victim’s home, where they questioned the brother. They also called his mother, who was later said to be in a hospital, and then met with CBI officials.
The sources said that both the brother and the mother have been subjected to detailed questioning and may be called in for questioning again. “Inconsistencies have been alleged in the brother’s statements, for which he is being questioned. The family is being questioned to understand the full sequence of events, ”said a source familiar with the details of the investigation.
The CBI team also went to the place where the victim was cremated by the state administration. allegedly without the consent of his family members. The team, sources said, spent about 45 minutes at the scene and also made some video recordings. “The forced cremation of the adolescent and the circumstances that led to it are a matter for investigation,” said the source.
Sources said the team will be camping in Hathras for the next several days to conduct investigations, collect evidence and question people associated with the case.
“All the documents related to the case, from recorded statements of relatives to forensic and autopsy reports, have already been withdrawn from the competent authorities. Based on these, further investigation will be carried out, ”said the source.
The agency will also seek custody of the four defendants arrested in the case and question them. The sources said that UP police officers involved in the investigation will also be examined. Doctors from Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi, Aligarh Muslim University and Hathras will be formally summoned by the CBI and questioned, they said.
The CBI has also attached DSP Seema Pahuja, who investigated the Kotkhai rape case in Himachal Pradesh, with the team having ASP VK Shukla, DSP RR Tripathi and Inspector S Sreemathy, among others.
The 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped by four men on September 14. She succumbed to serious assault wounds at a Delhi hospital a fortnight later. The matter took on a controversial tone after the administration allegedly forced a nightly cremation of the victim’s body despite protests from family members.
Versus public anger and the protests of the Opposition, the state government decided to hand over the case to the CBI, which later assumed a notification from the central government on Saturday.
The UP police had registered a case of attempted murder based on a statement from the victim’s brother, who, according to the FIR at the Chandpa police station, had said that the accused had tried to strangle his sister in a millet field And escaped when she raised an alarm
The notification issued by the Center at the request of the state government requested the IWC to investigate the rape, murder and atrocity and “any attempt, complicity and / or conspiracy, in connection with or in connection with said crime (s) and / or for any other crime committed in the course of the same transaction or derived from the same events ”.
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