Honour killing or gangrape: Will the Badaun cousins ever get justice?

Even as the Allahabad High Court on Thursday sought a progress report from the CBI on its investigation in the alleged gangrape and murder of two cousins in Badaun, serious questions have now been raised on the handling of the whole incident. Many new angles have emerged within a month, which, according to an exclusive report by CNN-IBN, now suggest that there may not have been a case of rape at all. Lack of a methodical response to the incident by the Akhilesh Yadav government has also come under the scanner. “There is total lack of conviction in handling anything by the Akhilesh Yadav government. The mindset of the party should change,” senior journalist Sharat Pradhan told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion. [caption id=“attachment_1604161” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Family members of the two girls. PTI[/caption] As soon as the news of the incident broke, the Samajwadi Party government immediately faced ire from all directions – be it women’s groups, political opponents or common citizens. Such was the anger on the state government that Uttar Pradesh DGP AL Banerjee was literally laughed at when he said at a press conference in Badaun on 7 June that rape of one of the victims was not confirmed by experts. Banerjee had then also pointed to the difference of conclusion reached by the post-mortem report and the forensic experts respectively. While the post mortem report on the 27 May incident said that the victims died due to hanging, experts felt that they were hanged after they were murdered. On the recovery of four beer bottles and two glasses from the crime scene spot, the state DGP had then said, “It may be that the crime is of any other type. Those, who are being talked about, may not be involved. They might be released, but it depends on the investigations. We don’t think that one of the victims was raped.” The nervousness on the Uttar Pradesh government was evident as it quickly ordered a CBI inquiry into the incident in a bid to protect itself from severe criticism. The alleged involvement of two police personnel made it tough for the state government to resist the onslaught as the state police also came under the scanner. Questions were raised if the state police did the initial investigation in a shoddy manner. Angry with the confusion in the investigation of the case, former Uttar Pradesh Police chief Vikram Singh, who was a part of the panel discussion, said, “this is not the first time that the case went wrong. There is so much hullabaloo over the case. Investigations cannot be done from half-baked evidence.” This, however, does not suggest that the CBI is doing a better job. The investigating agency is now probing if the incident was actually a case of honour killing as suggested by the state police initially. The possibility of such a conclusion has forced the CBI to keep the parents of the cousins within their net of probe and they are seeking permission to conduct a polygraph test on them. Going back to the same conclusions as suspected by the state police is also leading people to doubt the competence of the CBI. “In the famous Aarushi case, Uttar Pradesh Police was actually ridiculed when they suspected the parents. After three and half years, the CBI also came up with the same conclusion. More often then not, the investigation goes as per the thinking of the political class,” Pradhan said. Political intervention in criminal cases often diverts the attention away from the investigation. “We are not trying to politicise the issue. This is a very sensitive issue. Two girls have been hanged. Now the parents are also being blamed. The Uttar Pradesh government should be blamed for all this state of affairs,” said Bahujan Samaj Party member Sudhindra Bhaduria. Spokesperson of the ruling Samajwadi Party, Gaurav Bhatia, as expected, blamed political opponents of trying to exploit the situation. “The Samajwadi Party government is not politicising the entire issue. The BSP and Congress are politicising the issue. The government acted smartly by giving the case to CBI. Why can’t we not assist the CBI by not hindering the investigations? We gave the case to CBI to give confidence to the political class and to the families of the victims. We are concerned about doing justice to the families,” Bhatia said. Sonali Khan, head, India and regional operations, Breakthrough ridiculed those questioning the character of the allegedly murdered girls. “There were always questions raised on the character of the girls. But the girls were murdered. That itself is a crime. If the law enforcement agencies and political parties conduct themselves in a way that they themselves are not hindrance to the investigation it would be good for all. After all, there is a clear direction how investigations are to be conducted.”