On September 14, a young Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and attacked in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras. Found in a bad shape, she was shifted to the hospital and about two weeks later, succumbed to her injuries. The incident had sparked massive outrage, especially when it came to light that the girl had been cremated in the dead of the night, purportedly without her family in attendance.
Since then, there has been protests, politicians visiting the village in question, pleas filed before the Supreme Court and more. Amid the ensuing chaos, the Uttar Pradesh government had recommended a CBI probe into the case, later urging that the same be monitored by the SC. At the same time, the Special Investigation Team had continued their work, receiving additional time to submit their report to the Chief Minister on October 7.
Now, on Sunday, the Central Bureau of Investigation said that it had registered a case and taken over the investigation. A day earlier, the Centre had handed over the probe. The CBI registered the case on a complaint of the victim's brother who alleged that an accused had tried to strangulate her sister in a millet field on September 14.
The CBI said that it has constituted a special team to probe the case, which led to the widespread criticism of the UP government after the victim was hurriedly cremated by Hathras police on September 30.
In related news, the family of the victim will appear before the Allahabad High Court tomorrow. The Lucknow Bench of the HC had earlier taken suo moto cognisance of the attack and the abrupt cremation. The bench had summoned several top UP government and police officials as well as the family over the same.
(With inputs from agencies)
