Strict security arrangements in the High Court, where the relatives of Hathras’s victim appeared
Lucknow:
The Lucknow court of the Allahabad High Court, which is hearing the government and family account of the 20-year-old who died last month after brutal torture and alleged gangrape, is likely to focus on three aspects of the matter. sources have said. The court had taken note of the suo motu matter on October 1, saying it was of “immense public importance” and convened a battery of state government and police officials.
Today’s hearing is meant to determine three issues, the sources said.
First, if there was a violation of the human and fundamental rights provided for in articles 21 and 25 of the Constitution of India.
Second, if the police, while conducting their forced cremation at 2 am while locking up the family, follow all the Hindu rituals.
The woman’s family had opposed night cremation, saying it was not allowed under religious codes. They had also wanted to take the woman home and give her her last rites, which was not allowed by the police.
Ultimately, the court intends to determine whether this was done by state authorities in an “oppressive”, “overbearing” and “illegal” manner, the sources said. If the court finds an affirmative answer and the violations are also attributed to other charges, the judges will determine responsibility and take action against the guilty.
Addressing the suo motu issue on October 1, the court said the matter is of “immense public importance and public interest, as it involves allegations of arrogance by state authorities, resulting in a violation of human rights. basic and fundamental not only of the deceased victim but also his relatives “.
The woman was treated with “extreme brutality by the perpetrators of the crime and what is alleged to have happened afterwards, if true, amounts to perpetuating the family’s misery and adding salt to their wounds,” the court said.
In this context, the judges cited an Order of the Supreme Court issued in 1995 where it was ruled that article 21 of the Constitution that grants “Right to life” includes the “Right to Dignity” and the “Right to treatment fair “of a deceased. body too.
In its order, the High Court cited Mahatma Gandhi and Oscar Wilde to emphasize its point.
Disturbed by the reports of the forced cremation, the court quoted the British playwright: “Death must be so beautiful. Lie down on the soft brown earth, with the grass fluttering over your head, and listen to the silence. Not having yesterday, and not tomorrow. Forget time, forget life, be at peace. “
The woman, a member of the programmed castes, had died in a Delhi hospital on September 29 after fighting for her life for two weeks. Half-strangled, with multiple fractures, naked, bleeding and paralyzed, her alleged upper-caste attackers left her for dead in a field on September 14.
The men accused in the case have denied all allegations. The forensic reports of the case, whose samples were collected days after the alleged event, have denied the violation.
The brutality of the attack and the subsequent police handling of the case has shocked the country and sparked widespread outrage. Congress has been at the forefront of the attack on Yogi Adityanath’s government and has demanded that he resign from office.
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