CBI files charge sheet against four accused in Hathras case

More than three months after an Dalit woman was brutally killed after being gangraped in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras district triggering widespread outrage, the CBI, which was handed over the investigation, filed the chargesheet in the district court charging four youths with gangrape and murder.

The CBI has also charged the four youths, who were in jail, under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

According to the sources, the central investigating agency has relied on the ''dying declaration'' of the victim, who had breathed her last after battling for her life for several days at a Delhi hospital in September this year.

The woman was allegedly gangraped and then brutally beaten by four youths of her village. She was found lying in a pool of blood in the fields later.

The victim had suffered serious injuries on her neck, face, back and stomach and was rushed to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi after her condition worsened. She was paralysed in all four limbs and had to be put on a ventilator. She died a few days later.

The police cremated her body in the dead of night in the absence of her family members. UP government had formed an SIT to probe the matter and suspended the district police chief and some other cops.

The incident triggered a massive outrage with the opposition leaders targeting chief minister Yogi Adityanath for failing to ensure safety of the womenfolk in the state.

The state police had claimed that the victim ha not been raped. The family of the accused had alleged that the teen had been killed by her brother.