A PIL seeking a CBI investigation or a SIT investigation into the gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in the Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh will be heard by the Supreme Court today. The petitioners have urged the high court to issue appropriate orders for a fair investigation by either the IWC or the SIT under a sitting or retired Supreme Court or High Court judge, and to move the case to Delhi because the Uttar Pradesh authorities “had not taken action against the accused.”
A bank, headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde and made up of Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, will assume the PIL presented by social activist Satyama Dubey and defenders Vishal Thakre and Rudra Pratap Yadav.
Meanwhile, four people, said to have ties to the suspected radical Popular Front of India (PFI) group and an associated group, were arrested in Mathura on Monday while on their way to Hathras from Delhi. Police said the four were detained at Mathura’s Math toll plaza, where police were checking vehicles after receiving a tip that some suspicious people were heading to Hathras from Delhi.
The four were in a car and identified themselves as Atiq-ur Rehman from Muzaffarnagar, Siddique from Malappuram, Masood Ahmed from Bahraich and Alam from Rampur, police said, adding their cell phones, laptop and some literature, which could have a impact on peace and order were taken. During questioning, it came to light that they had ties to the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its partner organization Campus Front of India (CFI), police said, adding that their questioning is ongoing.
The Popular Front of India (PFI), a supposed radical group, has been accused of funding certain protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that took place across the country earlier this year. The Uttar Pradesh police had previously requested the organization’s ban.
The National President of the All India Confederation of SC / ST Organizations, Udit Raj, and his supporters were also briefly detained by the Ghaziabad police at UP Gate on Monday while on their way to the Hathras district to meet the family of the victim. The former BJP deputy, who then resigned from the party and joined Congress last year, later received permission to head to Hathras with a delegation of just six vehicles, police said.
Hathras has made headlines after a 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped on 14 September in a district village and succumbed to her injuries a fortnight later at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. Her hasty cremation in the dead of night, allegedly without parental consent, sparked further outrage. Hours earlier, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath referred to recent incidents and said anarchist elements are trying to unleash communal and caste violence in the state.
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