CBI suspects Hathras rape victim's brother killed her; family now under radar

"I would not have taken my sister to the police station if I had tried to kill her. We could have killed her at home,'' the victim's brother told CBI.

The family members of the 19-year-old girl allegedly gang-raped before being brutally murdered in Hathras district, were also among the suspects in the case.

The CBI, who was assigned to the case by the Uttar Pradesh CM earlier, quizzed members of the victim's family several times in the past few days besides the other suspects.

The brother of the victim was quizzed by the CBI on Wednesday.

''The CBI asked me why I had killed my sister,'' the brother of the victim said during an interaction with some civil rights activists, who had met the family members at their home in Hathras district after the CBI questioning.

''I told them (CBI officers) that I would not have taken my sister to the police station if I had tried to kill her. We could have killed her at home,'' he added.

The brother of the victim also reminded the CBI that the teen had named those who had perpetrated the crime.

The girl, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste community, had been brutally assaulted by four youths and died in the hospital. The family members alleged that she was gang-raped. The police had apparently held her family hostage and cremated the victim's body at midnight. All the four accused were 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 due to injury on her neck.

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