Updated: October 4, 2020 8:25:15 am
Police are guarding the home of the 19-year-old victim in the village of Hathras. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
For the past five days, an entourage of media and police has been crowding the narrow dirt road leading to the 19-year-old’s home in Hathras. From the gallery of a house across this street, some women, all relatives of the defendants, peek out from time to time at the crowd.
As the demands for justice for the 19-year-old increase, and a day after a UP government spokesman said that polygraph and drug tests would be carried out on the defendant, the victim’s relatives and even the Police officers involved in the investigation say the families of the accused want a fair trial.
While three of the defendants, Sandeep (20), his uncle Ravi (35) and Ramu (27) are related, the fourth defendant, Luv Kush (19), is friends with Sandeep. The four men are Shikhawat Thakurs whose families have been farming for many generations. The village farmers mainly grow rice and bajra.
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Six months ago, Sandeep got a job at a private company in Delhi for which he had to drive a courier vehicle. Her family says that of the 6,000 rupees she earned each month, Sandeep sent some money to her parents, who worked on 5 bighas of land. They say he came home a few days ago after developing a cyst on his foot.
“On the morning of the incident (September 14), Sandeep was lying on the veranda. His parents had returned home after feeding the animals. It was a normal day in the village, ”says Hariom, 30, Sandeep’s cousin.
The victim’s family has alleged that the 19-year-old was assaulted and assaulted by the four men while cutting grass in the fields around 8:30 am. The woman’s mother has said the defendant fled the scene after she raised the alarm.
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A few months ago, Ramu, one of the four defendants, had gotten a job as a day laborer at a dairy plant 10 km from the town. His family says he cycled to the plants in two shifts: from 7.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. and from 4.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.
His family says that Ramu, who has studied up to the tenth class, has hearing problems.
“Ramu was working when the incident happened. If there is a way to track a person’s location, they will know where they were. She returned home on her bicycle around 11:30 am, ”says Rajwati, Ramu’s mother.
A few meters from Sandeep’s home, Ravi’s family say they have told their four children that their father is working and would be back soon. The 35-year-old man, a daily wage worker, lined up in a chowk 2 km away every day, hoping to be picked up for work. His family claims that on the day of the incident, he had gone to the dining room looking for work.
Luv Kush took odd jobs to support himself. Sandeep’s family says Luv Kush is not involved in the crime and was helping her mother in a nearby field on the day of the incident.
“Some people say that we have connections and that the police protect us. We are nobody, how can we influence the police? Ramu and Ravi probably haven’t been outside of Hathras their entire lives. People say we are of a higher caste … We are just workers, farmers … ”says Hariom, Sandeep’s cousin.
The families say they are now pinning their hopes on the drug test. “If there is a test where you can tell whether a person is telling the truth or not, we want nothing more than that. Let there be a fair trial. Hang them if they are guilty. If not, let them live their life, ”he adds.
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