Hathras’ 20-year-old woman died in a hospital in Delhi last week.
New Delhi:
Hathras’ 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.
“The Hathras district administration had been receiving various intelligence inputs since the morning of September 29 on the way the dharna had taken place in Safdarjung hospital and the whole thing was being exploited and colored by caste / communal, “he said. UP.
The state said it had received specific information that thousands of protesters “from both communities / castes” along with supporters of political parties and the media would gather the next morning in the village, “which is likely to turn violent and lead to a major law. and ordering problems. “
There was also an alert due to the Babri mosque verdict and coronavirus safety rules, the affidavit said.
“In such extraordinary and severe circumstances, the district administration made the decision to convince the parents of the deceased to incinerate her with all religious rites at night to avoid large-scale violence in the morning to incinerate the victim’s body. that he lay for almost more than 20 hours after his death and autopsy, ”said the UP government.
He told the court that once the autopsy is performed, “there can be no ill intention” to hasten the cremation “except to obviate the possible violent situation resulting from the planned caste division of certain vested interests.”
There has been national outrage over the way police conducted the 20-year-old woman’s funeral in the absence of the family last Tuesday. The woman, a Dalit, had died in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital earlier that day from serious injuries after being assaulted and allegedly gang-raped by four upper-caste men in her village on 14 September. When news of her death broke, protests erupted outside the hospital.
UP police took her body and headed to her village in Hathras. Her family begged to be allowed to take the body home and even tried to stop the ambulance. They were locked in their home during the funeral.
The UP police insisted that she was cremated at night with “complete rites and customs” only in the interest of public order.
His affidavit also accused vested interests of spreading a false narrative. She said that a Special Investigation Team was established for a fair investigation and that the state had already recommended a CBI investigation.
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