Opinion | Hathras case: Let the CBI and courts do their job

The Supreme Courtroom on Tuesday directed the UP authorities to provide you with an affidavit stipulating a witness safety plan for the Hathras sufferer’s household and different witnesses within the grotesque gangrape-murder case. The state authorities has been requested to inform whether or not the household has chosen a lawyer to symbolize them. The listening to will resume after every week.

Chief Justice of India S A Bobde mentioned: “We need to know if sufferer’s household has chosen an advocate. We additionally need suggestion from you (Solicitor Normal Tushar Mehta) as to the scope of Allahabad Excessive Courtroom proceedings (due on October 12) and the way we are able to make them extra related. We would like it on file {that a} witness safety plan is already in pressure.”

The Solicitor Normal, showing on behalf of the UP authorities, wished that the apex courtroom ought to monitor the CBI probe into the Hathras incident. “Allow us to not sensationalize the loss of life of a younger woman, and let the investigation be honest and neutral”, Tushar Mehta mentioned.

The Chief Justice of India described the Hathras incident as “horrible and stunning”. The bench consisting of CJI Bobde, Justice A S Bopanna and Justice V Ramasubramanium is listening to the matter. Hours earlier than the apex courtroom started listening to on the PIL,  the UP authorities filed a 16-page affidavit defending its motion in finishing up a hurried cremation of the sufferer in her village.

The state authorities in its affidavit alleged that some politicians and media personnel allegedly instigated the sufferer’s members of the family and there have been violent protests due to which the cremation was achieved at night time “within the presence of members of the family”.

The state authorities mentioned, “the extraordinary circumstances and sequence of illegal incidents compelled the district administration to take the extraordinary step of cremating the sufferer at night time in presence of the members of the family, who agreed to keep away from additional violence.”

The state authorities alleged in its affidavit that there was “insidious propaganda” by some political events and part of the media to malign the federal government, utilizing social media and protests as their device. It additionally alleged that there was “a deliberate try to incite communal and caste riots utilizing the Hathras incident, and due to this fact, it might be applicable if the Supreme Courtroom supervise the CBI probe in a time-bound method.” The affidavit mentioned, “monitoring by the Supreme Courtroom will guarantee false narratives don’t intervene with the course of the probe.”

The state authorities additionally identified that “the sufferer didn’t point out rape in her first assertion to the police and that she alleged rape in her second assertion after which all of the 4 accused have been arrested.”

For the final a number of days, I’ve gone via scores of tapes and watched statements of the sufferer, her mother and father and cops in regards to the gang-rape incident and in addition in regards to the sordid method wherein the physique was cremated at night time. A number of senior UP police officers spoke to me about this incident, they usually provided logic to justify the way wherein the Hathras police handled the matter.

Let me record their arguments, one after the other.

First, the incident came about at round 10.30 am and the mother and father got here with the sufferer to the police station. A case was registered and the sufferer was first despatched to the district hospital and by 2 pm she was admitted to AMU medical faculty hospital. On the primary day, based on police, the sufferer didn’t point out rape in her assertion, due to which the docs didn’t perform assessments referring to sexual assault.

I’ve seen the video of the sufferer mendacity on the verandah in entrance of the hospital. The 19-year-old woman was groaning in ache, and two policemen have been taking assertion from her mother and father. I additionally watched one other video of the sufferer mendacity on a stretcher within the hospital. She was groaning and with a lot issue, she mentioned about “zabardasti” (Hindi colloquial time period for rape) achieved to her by the accused. The sufferer was saying, “chot isliye lagi, gardan isliye tooti, kyunki maine Sandeep ko apne saath zabardasti nahin karne di” (I suffered accidents, my neck was damaged as a result of I used to be resisting Sandeep from raping  me).

My query to UP police officers is: what’s going to a rape sufferer say, greater than this? Is ‘zabardasti’ with a lady not rape? Effectively, the anti-rape regulation is evident on this level. It’s my agency perception that the Hathras police made the primary mistake by not registering a rape case to start with. This was Negligence Quantity One.

The UP police officers mentioned, the sufferer talked about rape eight days after the incident, and instantly the police added rape cost to the FIR. The medical take a look at was achieved eleven days after the incident. Each policeman is aware of that no conclusive proof of rape will come if the medical take a look at is finished 96 hours after the incident. Whom have been the police making an attempt to idiot? This was Negligence Quantity Two. It was due to this that the intent of police got here below suspicion.

Level quantity three. Senior police officers have mentioned that the woman’s mom modified her assertion thrice. In response to them, she first mentioned, her daughter was strangulated. She then mentioned, a rape was used to strangle her. She once more modified her assertion and mentioned {that a} ‘dupatta’ was used to strangulate her. My tackle that is: how does it matter how the sufferer was strangulated? How does it matter whether or not she was strangled with naked arms, or a rope, or a dupatta? The bitter reality is that the woman misplaced her life due to spinal damage induced when the accused tried to strangulate her. This was Negligence Quantity Three.

Fourth level: Why didn’t UP police shift her to Delhi once they discovered that she was groaning with ache due to spinal damage? Police officers say the woman’s household was initially unwilling to shift her to Delhi for remedy. Even when I assumed that the police is telling the reality, my query is: If the police was a lot involved about respecting the views of the sufferer’s household, then why did it whisk away the physique at midnight from Safdarjang Hospital, ignoring determined pleas of her mom, who sat in entrance of the ambulance? Why didn’t police agree to permit the household to cremate the physique at daybreak?

I’ve seen the video of the woman’s mom banging her head in entrance of the ambulance and pleading to police to permit her to take the physique to her residence for placing ‘haldi’ (turmeric) on her arms and physique (a ceremonial ceremony achieved on the time of funeral).  If we imagine what the UP police says, would rioters have congregated within the village on the time of cremation? That too, at midnight? This was Negligence Quantity 4.

UP police officers have some extra arguments too. They declare that there was private enmity between the sufferer’s household and the household of the accused. The incident was a fallout of these household quarrels. Police additionally declare that each one the 4 accused have been arrested, when the sufferer named them. All these don’t make any sense now as a result of the actual fact stays {that a} 19-year-old woman was sexually assaulted, tortured, and he or she died in ache after battling loss of life for 2 weeks. It’s also a proven fact that her physique was cremated at midnight, with out the consent of the members of the family.

Let me repeat that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has achieved the suitable factor in ordering a CBI probe, and the state police should now cease making an attempt to cowl up. The state authorities has already suspended 5 cops, however the Hathras DM, on whose orders the police forcibly cremated his physique, nonetheless stays in his submit. Why was no motion taken towards the DM? India TV reporter spoke to Inspector Sanjeev Sharma of Hathras, who admitted on digital camera that no matter was achieved of the night time of cremation was due to “orders from above”. If motion was taken towards those that adopted orders, then the query arises: why was no motion taken towards the one who gave these orders.

The top of the Trauma Centre of AMU Medical School Hospital Dr Azeem Malik has mentioned that an FSL report on pattern taken eleven days after the incident can by no means give a conclusive discovering about sexual assault. In response to him, as  per authorities pointers, such a medical take a look at is finished inside 96 hours (4 days) of the incident in an effort to get a conclusive proof. The declare of the UP police that there was no proof of rape, doesn’t maintain water.

To sum up: Gross negligence on a part of native police, conceitedness and abrasiveness of district administration officers, lack of sensitivity in direction of the sufferer’s household, all mixed collectively performed havoc with the lifetime of a 19-year-old teenager. The Lucknow bench of Allahabad Excessive Courtroom took suo motu cognizance of the matter and referred to my information present ‘Aaj Ki Baat’ in its order, and now the matter is earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.

I’ve full confidence that the daughter of Hathras will get justice, however until the time the courts give her justice, it’s the accountability of our society to empathize with the sufferer’s mother and father and members of the family, provide them solace and provides them energy to face the problem in regulation courts.

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