Hathras gangrape: UP govt suspends SP, four others amid outrage; victim's family, cops to undergo narco test

Amid outrage over the gangrape and murder of a 19 year-old Dalit girl in Hathras district of Uttar Pradesh, the state government on Friday suspended the district’s Superintended of Police Vikrant Vir and four police personnel linked to the case, reports said.

The girl died on Tuesday in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, a fortnight after she was brutally gang-raped by four upper caste men, reports said.

The Hathras police has faced criticism for allegedly “forcing” the cremation of the girl’s body in the dead of night and for the subsequent manhandling of Opposition leaders trying to go to the victim’s house to express solidarity.

According to  Indian Express,  the four other police personnel who were suspended are: CO Ram Shabd, Inspector Dinesh Meena, SI Jagveer Singh and a head constable who were probing the alleged gangrape and death.

उत्तर प्रदेश मुख्यमंत्री द्वारा पुलिस अधीक्षक विक्रांत वीर, तत्कालीन क्षेत्राधिकारी राम शब्द, तत्कालीन प्रभारी निरीक्षक दिनेश कुमार वर्मा, वरिष्ठ उप निरीक्षक जगवीर सिंह व हेड मोहर्रिर महेश पाल को निलंबित करने के निर्देश दिए गए हैं। https://t.co/wo4US0suxS pic.twitter.com/kUWlHWlpBP

— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) October 2, 2020

According to ANI, the government also announced narco test for the suspended policemen as well as the victim’s family, after reports quoted the rape victim’s family as saying that they were being intimidated and harassed by the district administration.

Though some reports said that Hathras district magistrate Praveen Kumar Laxkar too has been suspended, there has been no official confirmation yet.

A video where Laxkar is purportedly trying to ‘intimidate’ the victim’s family has gone viral.

On Friday, a young boy, claiming to be a member of the rape victim’s family told reporters that the Hathras DM had kicked one of the relatives on the chest.

In a video, the young member of the victim’s family can also be heard accusing the Hathras police of  holding other members of the family prisoners  in their own home and snatching away their phones.

The police “locked the family members in their homes” so they couldn’t speak to the media or Opposition leaders, reports quoted the boy as saying. Firstpost has not verified the authenticity of the video.

‘Media will leave in few days, we will not’: Hathras DM tells victim’s kin

In one of the videos, the Hathras District Magistrate  allegedly asked the woman’s father to “reconsider” if he wants to stick with the statement or change it.

“Aap apni vishwasniyata khatam mat kariye. Media wale main aapko bata doon… aaj abhi aadhe chale gaye, kal subah tak aadhe aur nikal jaenge aur 2-4 din bachenge … Hum hi bas khade hain aapke saath mein, thik hai. Ab aapki ichha hai, aapko baar-baar bayaan badalna hai, nahi badalna hai…"

यूपी सरकार किसी को पीड़िता के गांव जाने से क्यों रोक रही है उसका जवाब यहां है?

पीड़िता के परिवार को हाथरस डीएम जाकर धमका रहे हैं।

न मीडिया जा पायेगा, न हम लोग तो यूपी सरकार पीड़िता के परिवार को खुलकर धमका पाएगी।

ये लोग अत्याचारी हैं। pic.twitter.com/RDV2jrQfRn

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) October 1, 2020

(You should not destroy your credibility. About the media, I must tell you, half of them have left today… the other half would leave by tomorrow morning… two or four more days maybe. Only we are standing by your side, alright. Now, it is up to you whether you want to change your statement repeatedly or not…),” DM Laxkar tells the victim’s father according to the video on social media.

A woman member of the family claimed they were being pressured by the district magistrate and feared “these people now won’t let us live here”, according to another purported video.

“Un logon ne mummy ke ulte seedhe video bana rakhe hain, us time haalat aise the ke jiske jo mu mein aa raha tha wo hum log bole ja rahe the… ab ye log humein yahan rehne nahi denge. Ye DM zyada hi chaalbaazi kar rahe hain, pressure daal rahe zabardasti… keh rah eke tum logon ki baton ka bharosa nahi hai, zabardasti bayaan badal rahe. Papa ko bulwa rahe keh rahe bayaan badalne se tumhari wo rahegi, hum log doosri jagah chale jaenge.”

(They have made random videos of mother’s statements. Soon after the incident, the situation was such that we were speaking anything that came to our minds… But now they (administration) won’t let us live here anymore. This DM is a trickster, he is pressuring us. Says we are not reliable, we are changing our statement. They asked our father and told him that we lose credibility if we change the statement, we (administrators) will be sent to some other place,) the sobbing woman alleged.

Media slams UP Police

Several questions have been raised on the Uttar Pradesh Police’s conduct starting from the immediate aftermath of the crime till today when members of an AITMC delegation were manhandled by the cops on duty.

Immediately after the crime, the victim’s mother and brother say that they drove the half conscious girl to the Chandpa police station for further help. “Nobody listened to us there,” her brother told Newslaundry . “The police kept saying, ‘Just take her from here. She’s being dramatic and lying here. Do you want to trap us?’” the report quoted the victim’s brother as saying.

She was first admitted to Aligarh Muslim University’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital and then shifted to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on Monday after her condition deteriorated. She succumbed to her injuries in Delhi on Tuesday.

The Newslaundry report further adds that though the victim regained consciousness in Aligarh and spoke with her family, the Hathras police chief Vikrant Vir said her statement was recorded only on 19 September, four days after the crime. The report also claimed that the victim was lying on a stone platform outside the station for hours, groaning in pain, before she was admitted to a hospital.

The police’s role again came into question after the victim’s brother alleged that the police forcibly took the body and his father for cremation as soon as they reached Hathras.

The family said that they begged the police not to cremate her in the dead of the night because it is against Hindu rituals, but the police allegedly burned the body in a lonely field without most of her family present.

The police, however, contradicted the family’s claim and told PTI that the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.

The police was also condemned for misbehaving with Opposition leaders including Congress’ Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi and TMC leaders Derek O’Brien, Pratima Mondal and Mamata Thakur.

With inputs from agencies