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NEW DELHI: Indian police were charged Wednesday with cremating the body of a 19-year-old woman against her family’s will after four men allegedly gang-raped her in the country’s latest horrific sexual assault.
The teenager from India’s marginalized Dalit community was seriously injured in a brutal sexual assault two weeks ago, according to her family and police, and died in a New Delhi hospital on Tuesday.
The case has sparked widespread anger across India that was further fueled Wednesday by allegations that the police seized the woman’s body and cremated it against her family’s wishes.
Clashes broke out between police and shocked protesters outside the hospital Tuesday night, before a large group of officers escorted the hearse back to its home village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
His family told local media that the body was seized by the police upon arrival in the village in Hathras district, despite resistance from relatives and villagers, and was cremated in the middle of the night.
Police did not offer an explanation, but several family members protested against the 3 a.m. cremation, saying they wanted the body to remain at the family home for a time so that absent loved ones could return to pay their respects.
“We begged them to let us take his body inside the house one last time, but they did not listen to us,” the woman’s brother told the Indian Express newspaper.
The Hathras police then ordered the cremation to continue and the relatives were forced to join in, the relatives told local media.
Police Chief Vikrant Vir denied the allegations, saying the cremation was carried out with the consent of the family.
“The police provided the firewood and helped the family with the cremation. Most of the family members were present at the cremation. We did not want any outsider to create disturbances in law and order, ”Vir told AFP.
On September 14, the victim was found lying in a pool of blood and was paralyzed from injuries to her neck and spine after she disappeared while on her way to the village’s fields.
The tragedy has sparked an uproar and illuminated social media in India, with politicians, Bollywood personalities, cricket stars and women’s rights activists condemning the attack.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people, including the victim’s relatives, gathered outside the Delhi hospital to protest the attack before authorities deployed riot police to force them to disperse.
The officers detained Chandrashekhar Azad, a Dalit politician, while he was leading protesters demanding the death penalty for the accused.
Another protest was due to take place in Delhi on Wednesday, as well as in Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow.
The four alleged attackers have been arrested.
India’s 200 million “untouchable” lower caste Dalits have long faced discrimination and abuse, and activists say attacks on them have increased during the coronavirus pandemic.
The latest assault comes months after four men were hanged for the brutal gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi in 2012, a case that came to symbolize the nation’s problem with sexual violence.
Women in India continue to be subjected to alarming levels of sexual abuse.
An average of 87 rape cases were reported every day last year, according to the latest data released Tuesday by the National Office for Criminal Records, but a large number are believed to go unreported.
The office reported an increase of more than 7% in the number of crimes against women in 2019 compared to the previous year.
