Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Friday directed his administration to suspend the superintendent, deputy superintendent of police and inspector and some other officials after the preliminary investigation report in the alleged Hathras gangrape of a 19-year-old Dalit woman was published.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday suspended Hathras SP Vikrant Vir and four other policemen over the alleged gangrape-murder case of the Dalit woman, a senior official said.

The official said the action has been taken on the basis of a preliminary inquiry report of the SIT.

Besides Vikrant Vir, the other suspended policemen are Circle Officer Ramshabd, Inspector Dinesh Kumar Verma, Sub-Inspector Jagveer Singh and Head Constable Mahesh Pal, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi said.

Political parties had staged protests to demand justice for the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died earlier this week, a fortnight after she was allegedly raped. Amid a countrywide outrage over the case, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had on Wednesday formed a three-member SIT, which was instructed to submit its report by October 14, according to officials.

The body of the 19-year-old Dalit woman, who died in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, a fortnight after she was allegedly gang-raped, was cremated in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh, in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging that the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.

Local police officers, however, had said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family.