A 20-year-old woman died Tuesday after being gang-raped and tortured by four men in Hathras of Uttar Pradesh.
New Delhi:
Blood was draining from her mouth when the mother of the 20-year-old woman, who died in Delhi on Tuesday two weeks after she was gang-raped and tortured in Hathras of Uttar Pradesh, found her naked body in the fields in September. 14.
The mother of the Hathras victim told NDTV hours after Uttar Pradesh police hastily cremated her daughter in the dead of night against the family’s wishes or allowing them one last look. The woman detailed the plight of her daughter and the family’s ordeal over the past 15 days.
The extent of the woman’s injuries – multiple fractures, paralysis caused by a spinal injury, and a cut on her tongue – has led to a parallel to the Nirbhaya gang rape. In 2012, a medical student was gang-raped and fatally assaulted on a moving bus in Delhi, sparking outrage and protests across the country.
“We were working in the fields when they took her away. I was mowing grass and she had gone off to pick it up. When I turned to look, I couldn’t find her. I screamed and looked for her and saw a slippers. There were drag marks nearby. I continued to find my daughter naked with blood coming out of her mouth, she couldn’t speak, her tongue had been cut out, “the woman told NDTV.
The woman added that they were expelled from the local police station when they went to file a complaint. “We went to Hathras and then to Aligarh; my daughter couldn’t speak, so they didn’t file a gang rape case,” she said.
He added that on Tuesday night, the police beat the women and other people with lathis when they tried to prevent their daughter from being cremated. “We even had to lock ourselves in our house because the police were chasing us to beat us and take us away. We were scared,” the woman told NDTV.
UP Police are under scrutiny for alleged rulings throughout the case.
According to the family, the police had initially accused the woman of lying about her injuries. Police had initially registered a case of attempted murder, but added rape charges only after the woman’s formal statement a week after the incident, when she was able to speak. On Tuesday, a senior official said the rape had not been confirmed and that they were awaiting a forensic report.
There have also been reports of a delay in taking the woman to a larger medical facility despite the severity of her injuries.
While some officials have claimed that the family refused to change it, the woman’s sister-in-law was seen questioning Hathras MLA Rajvir Singh Diler in front of journalists. “Why was he in a general ward for seven days?” she asked.
Amid national outrage over the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that a three-member panel had been established to investigate the crime and that a report would be submitted in seven days.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for “the strictest action against the accused” in the gang rape and torture of a 20-year-old woman in Hathras of Uttar Pradesh.
Four men have been arrested for gang rape. They will also be tried for murder.
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