A plea was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday for a probe by the CBI or a special investigation team headed by a sitting or retired judge into "inhuman and brutal" gang rape of a 19-year-old Dalit girl, at Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh.
A PIL filed jointly by social activist Satyama Dubey, and advocates Vikas Thakre and Rudra Pratap Yadav claimed the police authorities had not performed their duties towards the victim and tried to shield the accused persons for reasons best known to them.
The petitioners contended the body of the victim, who had died on Tuesday after being brutalised by upper caste men on September 14, was cremated in the middle of the night.
They claimed grave injustice has been done to the victim and her family but the authorities and the system were silent on it.
In a related development, Congress party sympathiser Tehseen Poonawalla also shot off a letter to the Chief Justice of India asking him to take Suo Motu cognisance of the matter and summon Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and district magistrate Hathras for "disgraceful and inhuman behaviour by the UP administration" and for failing to show "dignity even in death" by cremating her body without consent of the family.
(Published 30 September 2020, 13:56 IST)
JOIN US