JOIN USAfter 'international conspiracy', UP police smell 'naxal' connection in Hathras rape case
In yet another twist to the alleged gangrape and killing of a scheduled caste teen in Hathras, the Uttar Pradesh police, after alleging ''international conspiracy'' to defame the state government, claimed to have found a 'naxal' connection to the incident.
Police officials in Hathras claimed that a woman, suspected to have 'Naxalite links', had visited the victim's family and also stayed with them for several days.
''The woman, who was a resident of Jabalpur town in Madhya Pradesh and was a doctor, coached the victim's family about the statements to be given to the media....we have found that she has connections with some Naxalite activists,'' a senior police official said in Hathras on Saturday.
He said that the woman, identified as Rajkumari was pretending to be the 'bhabhi' (wife of brother) of the victim, also gave interviews to some media outlets and spoke against the state government. The police were now looking for the woman, sources said.
The police also claimed that a couple of members of the Bhim Army, a 'Dalit' outfit, mainly active in the western UP region, had also been living with the victim's family after the incident happened.
''It appears that there was a concerted attempt to defame the state government and trigger sectarian violence in the state,'' the police official said.
The state government had earlier claimed that some outfits had received funds from abroad to foment trouble in the state after the Hathras incident. Five persons, including a Kerala scribe, were arrested in this connection. As many as 19 cases, including those of sedition and promoting enmity between different groups, have been lodged in this regard.
The SC teen was brutally assaulted by four youths and died in the hospital. The family members alleged that she was 'gang-raped'. The police allegedly held her family and hostage and cremated the body at midnight. All the four accused have been arrested
The police claimed that the postmortem report and forensic examination of the Hathras victim did not confirm ''rape or gang-rape' and that she had died owing to injury on her neck.