When the villagers came to know about the cops hastily trying to cremate the victim, they blocked the roads and tried to stop the ambulance.
Hathras| ‘Injustice’ and ‘Gross Human Rights Violation’ are writ large in the Hathras gangrape case that has shaken the entire country. Adding to the plight of the already grieving family, the 20-year-old Dalit woman’s body who was gang-raped and murdered by four alleged upper caste men was cremated by the cops in the dead of the night. On Wednesday, the UP Police and the district administration cremated the body of Hathras gangrape victim at 3 AM allegedly against the wishes of the family. Reportedly, no family member was present when the victim was cremated in unusual haste.
According to some reports, the family members of the victim while speaking to media persons said that they wanted to bring her body one last time to their home where their relatives were present and then cremate her in the morning as per the community’s customs. However, the body of the victim who died in Safdargunj hospital in Delhi on Tuesday was whisked away by the police from the hospital around midnight without even informing the family. Some reports say that the parents and brother of the victim were in Delhi while the police brought the victim’s body to Hathras some 200 km away from the national capital.
#Hathras victim burnt against her family’s will. Police locked family members & locals inside the house & forcibly burnt the body. Family couldn’t even see their daughter for one last time.
If torture done to the girl was horrific. This is beyond humanity. We’re finished pic.twitter.com/WkBiyHWLbF
— Tanushree Pandey (@TanushreePande) September 29, 2020
Bhuri Singh, the uncle of the deceased said that while the relatives told the police to wait for the family to arrive, the cops said that if you do not do it, we will do it ourselves, News 18 reported.
Some videos showed relatives bending over the ambulance in which the victim’s body was kept and pleading to see her face one last time. When the villagers came to know about the cops hastily trying to cremate the victim, they blocked the roads and tried to stop the ambulance. Some villagers started protesting but police pushed them away and cremated the body.
The allegations that funeral was conducted without family's consent are wrong. The father & brother gave their consent to conduct funeral at night. Family members were also present at funeral. Vehicle carrying victim's body was present at village from 12:45 to 2:30am: Hathras DM pic.twitter.com/RLYWI2R9nG
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) September 30, 2020
A video shared by India Today reporter Tanushree Pande shows a lone pyre burning in the middle of the ground with no family members around. The cops are present some distance away who despite request were not letting journalists near the pyre.
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