The Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) charge sheet, indicting the Uttar Pradesh police for shoddy handling of the Hathras gang-rape and murder case is a slap on the face of the state government, which had left no stone unturned to give the case all kinds of twists and turns, so that it could be written off as yet another case of honour killing.
The manner in which the Uttar Pradesh administration in general and the police, in particular, were moving heaven and earth to deny rape had led many to suspect that they would also try to influence the CBI. The charge sheet however has shown that the country%u2019s premier investigation agency has maintained its independence.
Also read: Hathras horror: A timeline of the case
Not only the state police but even UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath initially did seem to dismiss the gang-rape theory as an opposition design, which he termed as part of an %u201Cinternational conspiracy%u201D to defame his government.
The basis of this allegation was a tapped phone conversation, which was not even authenticated and an abandoned website. The much-hyped apprehension of violence has remained imaginary even to this day. Yet, activists of a select organization, as well as a journalist from Kerala, were arrested on the charge of being part of the alleged conspiracy.
The state’s machinery also made it a point to malign the 19 %u2013 year old Hathras Dalit girl who was ruthlessly brutalised and gang-raped by four upper-caste goons on September 14 following which she died in Delhi%u2019s Safdarjung Hospital a fortnight later.
The CBI charge-sheet has pointedly blamed the UP police for the delay in the victim%u2019s medical examination, which is believed to have led to the loss of evidence. The central agency has also taken note of the fact that for four days, the Hathras police did not care to get a woman cop to examine the victim at the local Chandpa police station where the case was registered in Hathras district.
It is not known whether the agency has taken cognizance of the destruction of evidence on account of the hastily carried out cremation of the victim at the dead of the night. It may be pertinent to mention that the body of the victim was brought by the UP Police from Delhi%u2019s Safdarjung Hospital and taken straight for cremation in the village, where it was burnt after sprinkling petrol around 2 am. Not only did the police refuse to hand over the body to the family but they also did not allow her parents or sibling to hang around anywhere close to the cremation site.
Top officials of the UP government had been trying to give the case a twist of %u201Chonour killing%u201D by the victim’s family. According to them, the victim was in a relationship with the key accused Sandeep Singh which her family did not approve of. The CBI charge-sheet finds that as a half-truth. Thus, while confirming the %u201Caffair%u201D between the two in the charge-sheet, CBI has pointed out that the victim had stopped communicating with the accused since March, even as he was continuing to make phone calls to her. Sure enough, that contradicts the stories that were floated by the state government.
Also read: Uproar over Hathras case may be the beginning for a lot of changes in Indian society
As if holding a brief for the accused, UP officials had gone to the extent of planting stories in defence of the accused. %u201CAt least three of the four accused were not anywhere close to the location of the crime, while one was on duty in a factory%u201D, was a theory systematically floated by UP cops. On the contrary, the CBI charge-sheet has now made it loud and clear that none of the accused were able to prove their absence from the location of the crime.
Even as the UP police stands castigated by the CBI, surprisingly UP police top brass is trying to pat its own back by claiming that CBI had simply followed the investigation already carried out by them.
