HC to monitor probe: SC
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday entrusted the monitoring of investigation in the Hathras gang rape and murder case to the Allahabad high court and left it open-ended about the transfer of the trial from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) completes its probe.
The CBI, which started the probe into the case on October 10, will now report its progress to the Allahabad high court.
The high court will also determine the transfer of the trial and security to witnesses and the victim’s kin.
The order was passed by a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and comprising justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, which had reserved its orders in the case on October 15.
The order came following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by social activist by Satyama Dubey, who sought a courtmonitored probe in the crime roiled India and sparked angry street protests.
Several women lawyers and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have also joined in with the demand to shift the trial outside Uttar Pradesh and provide safety to witnesses in the case. The petitioners demanded central forces to take over the security duties from UP Police.
The top court ordered the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to provide security to the Hathras victim’s family and witnesses in the case. The court clarified that this measure is only a confidence building step and should not be seen as casting aspersion on the state police which had so far provided security to victim’s kin.
The Supreme Court also directed the high court to delete
name of the victim and her family members from the order sheet while taking a suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the proceeding.
The high court’s lapse was pointed out to the top court by solicitor general (S-G) Tushar Mehta during the last hearing on October 15 .
Advocate Seema Kushwaha, who represented the victim’s family, prayed before the apex court to shift the trial to Delhi after the CBI probe is over.
S-G Mehta, who represented the UP government, had submitted before the Supreme Court that it had no objection if the probe is court-monitored or security is handed to some other agency.
The UP Police maintained that any such order would not reflect the authorities concerned in poor light.
On September 14, the 19-yearold Dalit victim was raped by four members of the Thakur caste in Hathras district when she had gone to the fields to collect cattle fodder. She was partially paralysed in the attack. As her condition deteriorated, she was moved to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital on September 28 and died in the early hours of September 29.
At 2.30am the next day, the police forcibly cremated the body without the family’s consent in a field near the village. Local police officers, however, said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.
On October 12, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court criticised the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to forcibly cremate the Dalit rape victim.
So far, UP Police has arrested four upper-caste men -- Sandeep Singh, Ravi, Ramu and Luvkush Sikarwar – for their alleged role in the incident. The accused are lodged in Delhi’s Alipur jail.