NEW DELHI, Oct 27: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Allahabad High Court to monitor the CBI investigation into the alleged gang-rape and murder of a 19-year old dalit woman in Hathras in Uttar Pradesh. The court has also decided that the plea for transferring the court trial of the case outside UP, possibly to Delhi, will be considered after the CBI completed its probe.
A three-judge bench headed by chief justice S A Bobde and comprising justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian also said the HC would look into all aspects of the case and witnesses would be provided security. The bench had on October 15 reserved its verdict on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a social activist Satyam Dubey and several intervention pleas of activists and lawyers who have argued that a fair trial was not possible in an UP court as the probe had allegedly been botched up.
“All aspects of the investigation will be examined by the Allahabad high court, the apex court has said. At present, the case rests with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which may approach the high court with its investigation status report,” the court observed. The Allahabad High Court is already examining a suo moto proceeding on the alleged “hurried cremation” of the body of the dalit victim without allowing even the close family members from performing the last rites.
The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court had expressed dismay over reports describing how the victim was cremated in a hurried way allegedly without the consent of the family members. It took suo moto cognisance of the case and summoned top government and police officers of Uttar Pradesh. It has also heard the family members of the victim.
During the hearing in the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had referred to the affidavit filed in the apex court by the UP government which gave details about the security and protection provided to the victim’s family and witnesses in the case.
The state government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had recommended a CBI probe into the Hathras case after it faced intense criticism from the Opposition over its handling of the case, including the alleged hurried cremation raising doubts about the intention of the Hathras police and other authorities connected with the case.
The CBI registered an FIR under various sections of the IPC dealing with gang-rape and murder, and those under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The woman was allegedly raped by four upper caste men on September 14 and was referred to Safdarjung Hospital in an extremely critical condition. She died two weeks later on September 29. The accused — Sandeep, 20, his uncle Ravi, 35, and their friends Ramu, 26, and Luv Kush, 23 — have been booked on charges of murder, gang-rape and under the SC/ST Act. They, however, have written to the Hathras Superintendent of police claiming that they were “innocent” and that the woman was beaten up by her brother and mother on September 14 following which she died.
(Manas Dasgupta)
