CBI charge sheet in Hathras case highlights UP Police’s ‘lapses’

New Delhi/Hathras (Uttar Pradesh): The CBI has raised questions on the handling of the alleged Hathras gang rape and murder case by the Uttar Pradesh Police and alleged that the latter ignored allegations of sexual assault and did not get the victim’s medical examination conducted on time.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet in the Hathras case on December 18 in a Hathras court.

The 19-page charge sheet, accessed by IANS, alleged that the police did not take down the woman’s oral statement at the Chandpa police station when she went there on September 14 to report the crime.

Police twice ignored her allegations of sexual assault, which led to loss of forensic evidence, the agency said.

“Her statement was written five days later and she was medically examined for sexual assault only on September 22 — eight days after the alleged crime,” the charge sheet claimed.

Coming down hard on the police working, the CBI said that the victim used the word ‘zabardasti’ (use of force) at the Chandpa police station but it was ignored, and neither any medical examination got conducted nor rape law invoked.

It said that the 19-year old victim was referred to Aligarh as her condition was serious.

The CBI said that on September 19, the victim in her police statement used the word ‘chedkhani’ (molestation)… at that time only Section 354 of the IPC was added but again neither the police requested for or referred her for medical examination in the light of sexual assault.”

“Only on September 22, after the victim explicitly used the word ‘balatkaar’ (rape) against the four accused, was her medical examination for sexual assault carried out by medical officials.”

While putting down her statement in writing for the first time, the police did not add the names of two other co-accused, though the same were mentioned, the CBI alleged.

The Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by four men in Hathras on September 14. She died on September 29 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital.

The police’s handling of the case – particularly the late-night cremation of the victim allegedly without the family’s approval – led to angry protests across the country.

The officials, however, maintained that the cremation was done “as per the wishes of the family”.

The CBI had constituted a special team to probe the case after its Ghaziabad unit was assigned the matter. The team recorded the statements of family members of the victim.

The CBI officials, who had camped in Hathras after taking over the case on October 11, had also met the doctors at the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital, where the victim was treated after the alleged gang rape on September 14.

The Yogi Adityanath government had faced a lot of flak for the handling of the case.

IANS

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