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Hathras: 3 acquitted, 4th guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder
The four were accused of raping a 19-year-old Dalit woman, whose cremation in the dead of the night allegedly without the family’s consent or their presence provoked outrage
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A special court on Thursday acquitted three accused in the case related to the alleged rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras in September 2020 and convicted the main accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Lawyer Seema Khushwaha, who represented the woman’s family, said the court acquitted Ravi, Ramu, and Luv Kush, of all charges. She added Sandeep Sisodia, the main accused, was convicted under Indian Penal Code Section 304 and the anti-atrocities law but acquitted of rape.
Khushwaha said they will challenge the verdict even as its details were awaited.
The four were accused of raping the woman when she was out to get cattle fodder. She was left partially paralysed after the alleged assault and rushed to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, where she died.
The authorities allegedly cremated her body in the dead of the night forcefully without the family’s consent or their presence.
This along with the botched probe triggered national outrage. The case put under the spotlight vulnerability of Dalits, especially women, in the countryside.
Politicians made a beeline to the woman’s village as the case sparked nationwide protests, and prompted the state government and the Supreme Court to step in. The villagers backed the four upper caste Thakur accused.
In October 2020, the Supreme Court ordered the deployment of central paramilitary personnel for the security of the woman’s family. Over two dozen personnel guarded the family as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) took over the case.
The Allahabad high court took suo motu cognisance of the forced cremation and the alleged gang rape in October 2020. It said the incidents, which took place after the death and leading up to her cremation as alleged, have shocked “our conscience” and transferred the case to CBI for investigation.
The CBI filed a charge sheet against all four accused in December 2020. The agency concluded the four men allegedly raped the woman after she rebuffed one of them, Sisodia.
