Hathras rape case: CBI submits status report to Allahabad HC, says inquiry will be over by 10 Dec

Lucknow: The CBI furnished a status report of the Hathras rape case before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday and said the probe will be over by 10 December. The probe is taking time as forensic reports are awaited, CBI counsel Anurag Singh told the Bench. The Bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Rajan Roy heard the matter at length and expressed concern over the state government’’s stand not to shift the Hathras district magistrate. The Bench also granted more time to the state government and amicus curie JN Mathur to deliberate on proposed modalities regarding the guidelines to be framed for the cremation of the dead in the Hathras-like situation. It fixed on 16 December as the next date of hearing into the matter. Earlier filing an affidavit, senior advocate SV Raju and additional advocate general VK Sahi pleaded that the Hathras DM handled the situation in an utmost good manner, hence, the state government does not want to shift him to anywhere. Neither the family members of the victim indicted the DM nor the investigation agency indicated that he is influencing the probe, Raju and Shahi said, adding that there is no occasion to transfer or suspend him only on a whimsical demand of any political party as it would demoralise the bureaucracy. When Seema Kushwaha, the lawyer for the victim’’s family, demanded that the state government allot a house to them in Delhi, the Bench shrugged it off, saying that it has taken suo motu cognisance of a limited issue and that it is not adversarial litigation. The 19-year-old Hathras victim had died at a Delhi hospital a fortnight after her alleged rape by four men from her village on 14 September. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village. Family members claimed that the cremation, which took place well past midnight, was without their consent and they were not allowed to bring home the body one last time.