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Hathras gangrape: Mayawati demands CBI probe, Akhilesh seeks FIRs against DM, SP
On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government suspended senior police officials in Hathras district and ordered narco-analysis tests for everyone involved in the case
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Saturday demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe or one under a sitting Supreme Court judge into the alleged gangrape and murder of a Dalit woman in UP’s Hathras.
Mayawati’s Samajwadi Party (SP) counterpart Akhilesh Yadav has demanded FIRs against the Hathras district magistrate and the superintendent of police.
Also read: Rahul, Priyanka to set off for Hathras again to meet woman’s family
On Friday, the Uttar Pradesh government suspended senior police officials in Hathras district and ordered narco-analysis tests for everyone involved in the case even as pressure mounted over the administration for the alleged blocking of media access to the family of the 19-year-old woman.
In a set of two tweets in Hindi, Mayawati said, “There is a nationwide outrage against the Hathras brutal gangrape case. People are not satisfied with the initial probe reports that have come. BSP demands a probe by the CBI or a probe under the supervision of the Supreme Court.”
She also said, “At the same time, the party makes a fervent appeal to President of India (Ramnath Kovind), since he hails from UP and is a Dalit, to intervene in getting the victim’s family justice.”
In a tweet in Hindi late on Friday, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “Scared of public anger, the BJP may remove the district magistrate and the superintendent of police to hide its own acts. The Samajwadi Party demands FIR against these people so that they reveal the truth about what they did under pressure and at whose behest.” Akhilesh’s party on Friday observed a statewide ‘Maun Vrat (silent protest)’ over the incident and in many districts, the police lathicharged the protesters.
On September 14, a Dalit woman was allegedly gang-raped by four upper caste men in Hathras. After being initially treated at Aligarh Medical College and Hospital, she was taken to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on September 29.
Hathras district police has come under criticism, first for an alleged delay in responding to the woman and her family’s complaint, cremating her body in the middle of the night without the family’s consent, and for throwing a cordon of police officers around the village that stopped the entry of all journalists, and now for allegedly seizing the phones of the victim’s family members.
The suspensions were ordered on the basis of recommendations by a three-member Special Investigation Team which questioned the victim’s family members on Thursday. Government’s press note said that SP Vikrant Vir was suspended for alleged negligence and lax supervision of the case. He was replaced with Shamli SP Vineet Jaiswal. “Narco and polygraph tests should be conducted on the accused, complainant and police officials,” the note added.
